Xangle, a cryptocurrency disclosure and transparency platform published the results of its ICO Retail Investor Sentiment and Outlook 2020 report today. Nearly one-third of the US-based retail ICO investors expressed their anger against ICO projects as they felt crypto founders had deceived them by providing false information.
According to the released report, around 54% of the deceived investors wanted criminal proceedings against ICO founders. Investors felt the crypto market needed more accountability and a clear regulatory framework.
The research is based on 600 respondents across different age groups who invested in an initial coin offering between 2017 and 2020. More women (58%) participated in the survey than men. The research found that 22% of the respondents invested in an ICO during the boom of 2017, 35% invested in 2018, 26% in 2019, and only 9% in 2020.
Nearly half of the respondents invested less than $1,000 in an ICO, while 29% invested between $1,000 and $10,000. Approximately 8% invested between $10,001 and $20,000. According to the report, nearly 2% of the surveyed people invested between $50,001 and $100,000.
Commenting on the results, James Junwoo Kim, Co-founder of Xangle, said: "The survey findings confirmed our belief that there's a lot of opportunities and need in the crypto industry for better transparency and visibility for upcoming crypto projects, which can build investor trust and confidence."
ICO Market
The crypto market saw a boom in ICOs in 2017 and early 2018, several projects emerged with promising whitepapers and a team of advisors, but only a few of them turned out to be successful. The report shows around 55% of the people invested to see a return and most of them learned about the project from friends, family and co-workers. Approximately 33% felt that the project intentionally deceived them and most of them felt that a lack of awareness kept the crypto market in the dark.
Despite all the negative comments, findings indicate that 56% of the investors would make another investment in upcoming ICOs but with more information and research.
