However, many cryptocurrency companies are actually using the capital they raised to create exciting new products within the crypto community. With the launch of it’s Brass beta on the Ethererum mainnet earlier this week, Golem is shaping up to be among the most productive participants of last year’s ICO gold rush. This is definitely good news for the cryptocurrency market as a whole, which has been creeping back into the black over the past several days.
Golem Makes Good on its ICO
It’s no secret by now that fraud and scams are becoming major challenges to cryptocurrency’s future. Despite the limitless potential created by new applications of blockchain technology, cryptocurrency companies that seem legitimate often turn out to be Ponzi schemes or pump-and-dump scams. Running a scam is probably a lot easier than actually developing new tech, and it still remains to be seen which of last year’s ICOs will turn out to be duds. However, at least for the time being, Golem is making good on the representations it made to investors in its ICO.
Golem’s ICO was wildly successful. It ran a token crowdsale in late 2016, selling out of its GNT coin in just the first 20 minutes of the sale. Golem raised $8.6 million worth of Ethereum at the time, which is now worth a whopping $340 million. The company has been able to use this capital to develop a beta version of what it describes as “the world’s first live decentralized computing market.”
Golem had a successful capital raise when it released its ICO, but GNT has performed quite well for investors ever since. The coin is up over 300% from its price at launch, remaining steady at around $0.40 after a slight price bump that occurred after the Mainnet announcement. And, if the Golem development team continues on the ambitious but methodical pace it has established in its Roadmap, GNT will continue to climb.
ICO Product Launches Foreshadow a Bull Run in Crypto Markets
The HODL crowd is breathing a sigh of relief this week, hopeful that Golem’s product launch will be a sign of the times to come. There is a reasonable concern that the hundreds of millions of dollars raised by ICOs in 2017 will simply go up in smoke if none of these companies actually launch any marketable products after their coin sales.
Golem’s recent mainnet launch represents a positive omen for the larger cryptocurrency market. First of all, Golem runs on the Ethereum network. As the company creates better and more useful products, it will attract more users to the Ethereum network. So, if Golem generates a large enough customer base, it will put upward pressure on the price of Ethereum. Many of the coins launched through ICOs in 2016 and 2017 are also powered by Ethereum smart contracts, so investors can expect a bullish trend in Ethereum prices as more and more companies launch new products.
Secondly, Golem was among the early movers in the ICO phenomenon that hit crypto markets hard in 2017. The fact that it’s now launching a real-life product is an encouraging sign that other companies will soon do the same. If so, ICOs will be validated as a legitimate means of raising capital for new tech projects, clearing away some of the negative connotations that have been generated by the bad behavior of a few bad apples. This will pave the way for even larger mainstream acceptance of cryptocurrencies and their derivative products, which is a future that many fintech supporters are hopeful to see.