BitMEX Says Crypto IEOs Perform Poorly, Losses Up To 98%

The initial exchange offerings (IEOs) are a popular topic in the latest cryptocurrency news lately. However, according to new stats and as BitMEX says, they have lost investors up to 98% of their money.

The stats are pulled from the latest report on the phenomenon published on December 23 where the analytics arm of the exchange BitMEX named BitMEX Research identified twelve major IEOs that launched this year. Even eleven of those are now almost worthless compared to the price at which they first traded on the exchanges.

“Relative to the first traded exchange price… the performance to date has been poor. Almost all the tokens are down over 80%,” the report summarized.

BitMEX says that there is a growing popularity of IEOs but their performance is poor. Against the price at which the organizers first offered the IEO tokens, the numbers fare slightly better. Even four IEOs have delivered returns to investors and their performance varied between 7.9% and 490%.

The 490% figure actually belongs to Matic, which launched on Binance and which was easily the winning punt of the cohort. Even against this exchange price, Matic is still up by 255% and despite the mixed opinions about its provenance in the recent weeks.

As we previously reported in the altcoin news and rumors, a sudden 60% drop in the token’s value was what followed – and the unusual market activity progressed. At the time, the creators behind Matic denied any foul play with the CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao issuing a statement supporting their innocence.

BitMEX says that Matic is an exception to the nightmarish situation that many IEO investors otherwise find themselves in. “This volatile token has appreciated in value since it listed,” the report said.

What’s also important to know is that IEOs differ from initial coin offerings (ICOs) in that an exchange directly lists its tokens via its own dedicated launchpad. The fundraising tool has come in for criticism since the first projects launched with the doubts now centering around the ability of this sector to gain long-term credibility.

Currently, the market is at a new total of $197 billion and rising as we speak. Bitcoin’s dominance is at 68.9% right now.