Raised $200 million in four days! Former Goldman Sachs high-frequency trader sets blockchain ICO financing record

How popular is encrypted digital currency? A couple with a Wall Street background recently set a new record for blockchain ICO financing: raising more than 200 million US dollars in just four days.

ICO is a public offering like IPO, but the subject is not securities but encrypted digital currency. Tezos, a start-up blockchain platform that created the ICO financing record, is expected to set a new record, because according to the plan, the ICO will continue for another eight days, and the final fundraising scale may double to more than US$500 million.

Recently, some blockchain startups have received record-breaking financing. For example, Bancor raised nearly $150 million in the first three hours of its ICO last month, and Block.One raised about $185 million in the first five days of its ICO earlier this month. However, the well-known technology blog Mashable pointed out that Tezos has two major differences compared to them:

• Tezos is not based on Ethereum, but a brand new blockchain platform that competes with Ethereum. It allows investors to participate in financing through Bitcoin and Ethereum. As of press time, Tezos has raised 54,104 Bitcoins and 277,162 Ethereums.

• There is no upper limit for Tezos' ICO. The only limit is the time. There are 8 days, 3 hours and 42 minutes left until the end of this ICO.

In addition, Wall Street Journal found that Reuters and other media had previously mentioned that Arthur Breitman and Kathleen Breitman, the husband and wife who founded Tezos, have extensive backgrounds in Wall Street and the hedge fund industry.

Her husband Arthur is the CEO of Tezos. Before starting his own business, he worked at Goldman Sachs’ high-frequency trading platform and was also an options market maker at Morgan Stanley. His wife Kathleen is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Tezos. She was previously a senior strategy assistant at the blockchain alliance R3 and a management assistant at Bridgewater, the world’s largest hedge fund.

Tezos describes itself as committed to achieving “the fundamental design goals of transparency, security, and shared governance.” It has recently attracted senior venture capitalists to join.
In an interview with Reuters in May, billionaire investor Tim Draper, who backed Bitcoin in its early days, said he would participate in Tezos' ICO on May 22. Draper became the first high-profile venture capital investor to participate in an ICO.

However, some industry insiders have criticized the way Tezos operates.

Charles Hayter, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange CryptoCompare, told Mashable that it is dangerous to set no limits on ICOs. It shows a complete disrespect for corporate management and, to a certain extent, investors. It makes people doubt that the original financing scale may not be that high. The fairness and authenticity of Tezos' financing concept will arouse attention.

Controversy and hope coexist: Wall Street digs for gold in blockchain

Blockchain refers to a new application model of computer technologies such as distributed data storage, peer-to-peer transmission, consensus mechanism, encryption algorithm, etc. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are based on blockchain technology.

As a distributed ledger technology, blockchain technology has won the favor of financial institutions in many countries in recent years. Banks such as Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo have invested in blockchain start-ups, and many banks will launch commercial blockchain products this year.
On June 21 this year, an article in Wall Street Journal's All-Weather Technology pointed out that it is difficult for investors to exit equity crowdfunding at will. ICO solves the financing and capital circulation problems in the primary market. Basically, token projects can be freely traded in the market a few days after issuance, achieving liquidity premium. ICO is replacing the role of VC.

ICO first appeared in 2014 and became popular in China in the second half of last year. As of the publication of the above-mentioned All-Weather Technology article, data from CoinDesk showed that blockchain entrepreneurs had raised US$327 million through ICO products, exceeding the US$295 million raised through VC financing.
In the same month, a Reuters article cited CB Insights data, saying that in the first quarter of this year, blockchain startups received $141 million in investment, a 57% increase from the previous quarter but a 18% decrease year-on-year.

Reuters mentioned that some skeptics believe that blockchain will never be widely used or may pose a threat to traditional banks, while others worry that Bitcoin is too volatile.