Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/214964 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 7962
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
We study the extent of fraud in initial coin offerings (ICOs), and whether information disclosure prior to the issuance predicts fraud. We document different types of fraud, and that fraudulent ICOs are on average much larger than the sample average. Issuers that disclose their code on GitHub are more likely to be targeted by phishing and hacker activities, which suggests that there are risks related to disclosing the code. Generally, we find it extremely difficult to predict fraud with the information available at the time of issuance. This calls for the need to install a third-party that certifies the quality of the issuers, such as specialized platforms, or the engagement of institutional investors and venture capital funds that can perform a due diligence and thus verify the quality of the project.
Subjects: 
initial coin offering
fraud
crypto-currencies
crowdsales
JEL: 
G18
G38
M13
Document Type: 
Working Paper
Appears in Collections:

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.