The ICO Retail Investor Sentiment and Outlook 2020 report by Xangle

Download the complete report here.

Overview

The crypto market is booming. Investors from around the world are increasingly eyeing crypto projects  that are using blockchain technology, creating new tokens, or generating innovation around other crypto assets  as viable investment opportunities.

They’re certainly not without risk, as all early-stage companies forming around a growing new industry have some risk involved. But investors are excited about putting money into these projects and want to see them scale while providing value to the world with their new innovations. More money invested encourages more crypto projects, which generates more awareness and legitimization around the industry. It also appeals to more investors — and the cycle continues.

The last thing investors want is to be in the dark about the project, feel like information is being withheld from them, or, at the very worst, find that their money has disappeared overnight along with the company. Unfortunately, that’s the experience a number of investors have had. This has turned them off to the crypto industry perhaps indefinitely.

Key Findings

From these US-based investors, what we found was a mix of experiences, but a few things became clear:

• The majority of respondents (55%) invested in order to see a return.

• Respondents relied on a number of authorized and unauthorized sources — from online forums to suggestions from friends — to make their investment decisions.

• 56% would make another investment, but felt they needed more information and research to help them.

• 33% felt that the ICO deceived them or withheld information from them, with 17% unable to determine whether they were deceived or not.

• Of the 33% who felt deceived by their ICO, 54% believed that the ICO founders should be held criminally liable for their actions.

• Respondents felt that a lack of regulation, awareness, and security is holding the crypto market back.

• Respondents felt that more accountability, investor protection, and information are needed to increase investor buy-in.

Overall, the survey confirmed our belief that there’s a lot of opportunity and need in the crypto industry for better transparency and visibility for upcoming crypto projects, which can build investor trust and confidence.

Download the complete report here.