Seeing as new ICOs are launched on a daily basis, there are very few of them that manage to gain the success of Bitcoin, leaving a market full of mostly unsuccessful or fraudulent projects.
However, this hasn’t stopped investors from looking for the next big crypto sensation. While there is no exact formula to guarantee success, there have been several tokens that were launched through initial coin offerings; they have performed brilliantly and managed to stay in the attention of investors.
In today’s article, we will be looking at the most successful ICOs of all time that have managed to produce the most substantial ROI figures for their early investors.
List of the Most Successful ICOs
1. NXT
NXT was one of the earliest blockchain startups to garner success. It was launched in September, 2013, in an initial coin offering held on the BitcoinTalk Forum, where it succeeded in raising around $16,800 worth of Bitcoin.
The cryptocurrency was designed to serve as a blockchain platform which allows small businesses, corporations, and banks deploy their proprietary blockchain applications.
One NXT coin had a value of $0.0000168 at its ICO debut. The highest price for an NXT token was peaked at $2.15 USD, which resulted in a whopping 1,477,000% return on investment at that time.
2. IOTA
The IOTA project is a unique blockchain project which merges Internet of Things with blockchain elements. It is the only cryptocurrency that does not use a full blockchain. Instead, it applies a novel technology called Tangle, which solves the scalability and transaction fee issues.
Its initial coin offering was held in November and December, 2015, in which it secured over $400,000 in funds. The IOTA tokens were sold during this time for less than $0.001, reaching a total of one billion IOTA tokens. The MIOTA token peaked at $5.69 USD, and even though it was not such a high figure compared to some other ICOs, it did bring an ROI of 332,500% to its early investors.
3. Ethereum
Ethereum is probably one of the most known blockchains on the market. The platform was launched in 2013 by Vitalik Buterin and it was created to support smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps).
Due to Ethereum’s potential for various industries, its native digital currency, Ether, has seen an incredible growth since its ICO days.
The initial coin offering debuted in the summer of 2014, where 11.9 million Ether tokens where sold, raising $16 million USD in just 42 days. The price at which Ether was offered then was $0.311 USD.
In January 2018, ETH reached its all-time high of $1,417 USD, which resulted in an ROI of almost 457,000%, making one of the most successful ICOs of all time.
4. NEO
NEO, formerly AntShares, is China’s first public blockchain startup. It is another DApp and smart contract platform which enables users to create their own tokens or “smart assets platforms”.
Its first ICO round was held in October, 2015, selling 17.5 million tokens for $550,000 USD. Back then, the token was still selling under the ANS ticker, but it rebranded in 2017 to NEO. The ANS/NEO token had an initial token price of $0.032 USD.
A second crowdsale took place in September, 2016 for financing its platform development; $22.5 millions NEO tokens were sold and $4.5 millions were raised.
NEO’s price reached its peak at $196.85 on January 15, 2018, which meant a 615,056.25% ROI, making it an example of how successful ICOs should be done.
5. Spectrecoin
Spectrecoin is a privacy-focused, Proof-of-Stake (PoS), digital currency, which enables users to transact anonymously.
The cryptocurrency was launched in late 2016, when anonymous digital currencies were just starting to attract crypto investors. XSPEC had an initial value of $0.001 USD, and at its all-time high price it was sold for $6.56, resulting in a 655,900.00% ROI at that time.
6. Stratis
Stratis is a blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) platform which enables the development of blockchain applications for enterprise use.
Its initial coin offering was launched in June, 2016, managing to raise $600,000 worth of digital currency. Stratis’ token, STRAT, was sold at an initial price of $0.007 per token. Its all-time high price was $22.66 on January 9, 2018.
At the time of writing this article, Stratis is trading at$0.865911. That marks a 38,600 percent return on investment for early token holders within two years.
7. Ark
We will continue our list of successful ICOs with Ark. The project is designed to offer “all-in-one blockchain solutions” to developers, users, and startups.
During the Ark ICO, the project managed to raise $942,000 and one ARK token was sold for $0.01. Initially offered at a price of $0.04, at its highest levels, it climbed to nearly $11, providing a return on investment of over 35,000%.
Ark launched its token sale in November, 2016, when it was one of the few all-in-one blockchain solutions in the market. It led to a rise of almost $950,000 – a lot for late 2016, when the ICO market was substantially less developed.
8. Storj
Storj was among the first blockchain projects to offer decentralized cloud storage solutions. The token began trading in autumn, 2014, after its first ICO; $461,000 were raised, and one token had a value of $0.009.
In 2017, Storj held another crowdfunding, securing $30 millions and another $3 millions in seed funding. Its all-time high was $2.96, resulting in a ROI of almost 33,000 %. Even though two dollars isn’t that impressive, its return on investment figure makes it a guest on our list of successful ICOs.
Final Thoughts
With this, we conclude our list of 8 most successful ICOs according to their return on investment. Investing in a new project always carries its risks, but there are several tokens out there that have the potential to bring in significant gains.
Featured image: thechinfamily
