亞洲投資者繞開禁令繼續(xù)投資ICO

Pent-up demand from Asia is driving the booming global market for initial coin offerings as regulators in China and South Korea try to curtail such fundraising activity.

來自亞洲的被抑制的需求正在推動全球首次代幣發(fā)行(ICO)市場的繁榮，即便中國和韓國監(jiān)管機構(gòu)在試圖遏制這類籌款活動。

Companies have raised about $3.2bn this year through coin offerings, up from less than $300m last year, according to Coindesk, a data company that tracks global issuance. The ICO market enables start-ups to bypass banks and traditional underwriters of capital raisings, by selling digital tokens that can be used to purchase their products at a later date.

據(jù)追蹤全球代幣發(fā)行的數(shù)據(jù)公司Coindesk表示，今年企業(yè)通過代幣發(fā)行已籌集了大約32億美元資金，而去年還不到3億美元。通過銷售數(shù)字代幣——日后可用來購買其產(chǎn)品——ICO市場讓初創(chuàng)公司得以繞過銀行和傳統(tǒng)的募資承銷商。

Asia, particularly China, has been closely linked to the development of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.

亞洲，特別是中國，與比特幣等加密貨幣的發(fā)展一直密切相關(guān)。

While the digital fundraising trend has been global, data from KYC-Chain, a company that performs due diligence on ICO investors, show that demand for ICOs is coming predominantly from Asia.

雖然數(shù)字募資趨勢是全球性的，但根據(jù)對ICO投資者進行盡職調(diào)查的公司KYC-Chain的數(shù)據(jù)，ICO需求主要來自亞洲。

“This is the trend that we are seeing with all the token sales using our technology right now,” said Edmund Lowell, KYC-Chain’s founder and chief executive, who noted that the company’s own token sale had experienced the strongest demand from the region. “Asia is where the demand is highest.”

KYC-Chain創(chuàng)始人和首席執(zhí)行官埃德蒙•洛維(Edmund Lowell)表示：“使用我們的技術(shù)，這是我們現(xiàn)在從所有代幣發(fā)售看到的趨勢。”他指出，該公司自己的代幣銷售經(jīng)歷了來自亞洲的最強勁需求。 “亞洲是需求最大的地方。”

About 70 per cent of so-called “bitcoin miners” — companies that use computing power to create new bitcoins — are based in China, according to Blockchain, a software platform for digital assets. That has left Asia with vast reserves of digital currencies to invest in ICOs, said Daniel De Weyer, a former Swift executive who now invests in ICOs.

根據(jù)數(shù)字資產(chǎn)軟件平臺Blockchain的數(shù)據(jù)，大約70%所謂的“比特幣礦工”——利用計算能力創(chuàng)造新比特幣的公司——都在中國。環(huán)球銀行金融電信協(xié)會(Swift)前高管、現(xiàn)在投資于ICO的丹尼爾•德維爾(Daniel De Weyer)表示，這讓亞洲獲得了龐大的數(shù)字貨幣儲備去投資于ICO。

“Because a lot of the cryptocurrencies are held in Asia, it only makes sense that a lot of the investors are looking to put their holdings to work,” Mr De Weyer said.

德維爾說：“由于亞洲持有大量加密貨幣，有大量投資者尋求充分利用所持貨幣是完全合乎邏輯的。”

But the region has seen some of the harshest regulation on ICOs and cryptocurrencies. In September, the Chinese government banned the digital offerings, calling them a “form of unapproved illegal public financing behaviour”. Korea followed that month with a similar ban.

但該地區(qū)已出現(xiàn)了一些針對ICO和加密貨幣的最嚴厲的規(guī)定。9月份，中國政府禁止了代幣發(fā)行，稱其為“未經(jīng)批準非法公開融資的行為”。隨后韓國也在當月出臺類似禁令。

But the halt on ICOs has not stopped investors from buying into the deals. In China, over-the-counter bitcoin sales rose from 5 per cent before the ban to more than 20 per cent in November.

但叫停ICO未能阻止投資者買入這類交易。在中國，場外交易比特幣銷售已從禁令頒布前的5%，增至11月的逾20%。

“There’s a joke: China bans bitcoin every day,” said Ryan Xu, a Beijing-based bitcoin miner and ICO investor.

北京的比特幣礦工和ICO投資者Ryan Xu表示：“市面上有個笑話說，中國每天都禁止比特幣。”

Many Chinese ICO investors have either moved to OTC markets or relocated offshore in order to continue their businesses. For example, Mr Xu’s company, Newstyle-Collinstar Capital, has headquarters in Australia, South Korea and China.

許多中國ICO投資者為了繼續(xù)他們的業(yè)務(wù)，或者前往場外交易市場，或者轉(zhuǎn)移到境外。例如，Ryan Xu的公司Newstyle-Collinstar Capital在澳大利亞、韓國和中國都有總部。

A recent ICO launched by start-up Gatcoin, which is seeking to raise $35m, has so far attracted more than 50 per cent of its investors from Asia, KYC-Chain data showed.

據(jù)KYC-Chain數(shù)據(jù)顯示，初創(chuàng)公司Gatcoin最近發(fā)起了一次ICO，目標是籌集3500萬美元，目前所吸引的投資者50%以上來自亞洲。

US investors in the sale accounted for 14.33 per cent of the demand with buyers from Korea just behind at 14.28 per cent. Indian traders ranked third, taking about 13 per cent. Hong Kong and Vietnam were also among the top-10 sources of investment.

發(fā)售交易中的美國投資者占了總需求的14.33%，韓國買家以14.28%緊隨其后。印度交易員排名第三，約占13%。香港和越南也在前十大投資來源地之列。