Public token sales have changed a great deal in two years. ICO activity looked healthy by some counts in 2025, and then fell hard in 2026.
This article collects the latest ICO statistics on funding, success rates, investor habits, risks and rules. The figures come from several research firms and data sites, so methods and totals differ between them.
Where two sources disagree, both numbers are shown. That lets readers compare the data and decide how much weight each figure deserves.
Public Token Sales Fell Sharply in 2026
CryptoRank counted 13 public token sales in May 2026. That is the lowest monthly total since December 2020, when only four sales closed.
The wider quarter was just as weak. Projects raised about $58 million through IEOs, ICOs and IDOs in Q2 2026, which is an 85 percent drop from the quarter before.
The number of public sales fell from 105 to 37 over the same period. Q1 2025 was the peak of this cycle, with $849 million raised across 429 sales.
Measured against that peak, disclosed public fundraising has shrunk by more than fourteenfold in five quarters. Capital did not leave crypto, but it moved away from open sales.
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Public sales in May 2026 | 13 |
| Public sales in Q1 2026 | 105 |
| Public sales in Q2 2026 | 37 |
| Amount raised in Q2 2026 | About $58 million |
| Change in amount raised from Q1 2026 | Down 85% |
| Peak quarter (Q1 2025) | $849 million across 429 sales |
Venture Capital Holds Most of the Money
Venture capital is where most crypto funding now sits. Galaxy Research tracks these deals, and the reports citing its data give different totals for Q2 2026.
One source reports $5.68 billion across 384 deals in Q2 2026. That was a 31 percent rise in capital from Q1, and later-stage companies received about 78 percent of it.
Another source cites $3.19 billion across 739 deals for the same quarter, with deal count up 8 percent from 682 in Q1. The first source puts the first half of 2026 at $10.02 billion across 744 deals.
These numbers do not fully match, so readers should check Galaxy Research’s own reports before quoting a single total. The sources do not explain the gap.
Even the lower figure is about 55 times the $58 million raised in public sales that quarter. Private investors are writing bigger checks, mostly to later-stage firms.
| Figure cited | Capital | Deals | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Source A | $5.68 billion | 384 | Q2 2026 |
| Source B | $3.19 billion | 739 | Q2 2026 |
| Source A | $10.02 billion | 744 | First half of 2026 |
| CryptoRank | $58 million | 37 public sales | Q2 2026 |
Global ICO Market Size and Regional Split
One ICO market report values the global market at $38.1 billion for 2025. It counts 1,096 ICOs launched worldwide and says market value grew 21.7 percent, the fastest rise since 2021.
These totals are far higher than the public sale figures from CryptoRank. The two sources use different definitions and data sets, so they should not be added together or compared directly.
North America led with $9.3 billion raised in 2025, followed by Asia-Pacific at $8.7 billion and Europe at $7.2 billion. Africa and the Middle East raised $1.4 billion, up 43 percent from a smaller base.
The average token sale lasted 26 days in 2025. Cross-border money made up 48 percent of contributions, and projects that raised funds in stablecoins grew by 31 percent.
By share of all ICOs, North America held 26.4 percent, Asia-Pacific 24.9 percent and Europe 21.7 percent. The Middle East and North Africa held 11.3 percent, and Latin America held 7.5 percent.
The United States hosted the most launches in 2025. Singapore, Germany, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates followed.
| Country | ICO launches in 2025 |
|---|---|
| United States | 248 |
| Singapore | 117 |
| Germany | 98 |
| Switzerland | 84 |
| United Arab Emirates | 57 |
ICO Success Rate Statistics
The report defines a successful ICO as one that reaches at least 75 percent of its funding goal. On that basis, 34.5 percent of ICOs succeeded in 2025, which means 65.5 percent did not.
Success varied by sector. DeFi projects led at 41 percent, infrastructure followed at 36 percent, and NFT projects trailed at 18 percent.
Projects that checked investor identities did better, at 38 percent compared with 26 percent for those without KYC. Projects with a working product or prototype reached 42.3 percent.
Marketing spend also lined up with results. Projects that spent more than $100,000 on marketing had a 47 percent success rate.
About 19 percent of 2025 ICOs went past their hard cap, mostly in AI and blockchain projects. Sales with early community governance models reported a 37.5 percent success rate, and multi-chain launches were 28 percent more likely to hit targets.
Projects with audited smart contracts raised $1.2 million more than unaudited ones. Tiered pricing raised 18 percent more than fixed pricing, and communities above 50,000 followers raised 30 percent more.
Raise sizes show a wide gap between the top and the middle of the market. The table sets out the main figures.
| Measure | 2025 figure |
|---|---|
| Average raise per ICO | $5.4 million |
| Median raise per ICO | $3.7 million |
| Average raise, top 10% of ICOs | $18.2 million |
| Average raise, utility or ecosystem tokens | $6.3 million |
| Median soft cap | $1.8 million |
| Median hard cap | $9 million |
ICO, IEO and IDO Statistics Compared
Token sales come in three main formats. ICOs run on a project’s own site, IEOs run on a centralized exchange, and IDOs run on a decentralized exchange or launchpad.
In 2025, ICOs made up 49 percent of token fundraising events, IEOs 32 percent and IDOs 19 percent. CryptoRank data cited elsewhere says IDOs were the most common format by count, so the split depends on the data set.
IEOs raised the most per project at $6.2 million. ICOs averaged $5.4 million and IDOs $3.7 million.
IEOs also showed the lowest scam rate, below 1 percent, because exchanges vet projects before listing. ICOs sat at 6.3 percent and IDOs at 4.9 percent.
DappRadar’s live tracker shows IDOs dominate its 2026 calendar. It lists 117 live and upcoming sales across 43 launchpads, with $103.17 million raised across tracked sales.
Only 24 percent of IDOs reached their soft cap in 2025. ICOs drew the widest retail participation, at over 72 percent of investors.
| Measure (2025) | ICO | IEO | IDO |
|---|---|---|---|
| Share of fundraising events | 49% | 32% | 19% |
| Average raise per project | $5.4 million | $6.2 million | $3.7 million |
| Projects using KYC and AML | 65% | 92% | 51% |
| Scam incidence | 6.3% | Below 1% | 4.9% |
| Tokens listed within a week | 62% | 78% | 41% |
| Average time to launch | 3.5 months | 4.2 months | 2.1 months |
Blockchain and Token Type Statistics
Ethereum hosted 43 percent of ICOs in 2025. BNB Smart Chain followed with 21 percent and Solana with 13 percent.
Polygon held 9.5 percent and Avalanche 4.1 percent. Aptos and Sui each hosted about 2.2 percent, and Cardano 1.3 percent.
Ethereum projects raised an average of $6.7 million, against $5 million on Solana. Multi-chain ICOs attracted 22 percent more capital than single-chain launches, and cross-chain tools such as LayerZero and Wormhole supported 17 percent of ICOs.
Utility tokens made up 71 percent of ICOs, and security tokens made up 29 percent. The security token market doubled to $11.1 billion, and real estate tokens held 34 percent of that segment.
Among new utility tokens, 52 percent offered staking and 48 percent built in governance. Hybrid models with both utility and security features reached 9.6 percent of ICOs.
ICO Investor Statistics
The typical ICO investor is a retail buyer between 25 and 40. Retail investors made up 61 percent of contributors in 2025 and institutions made up 19 percent, according to one report.
Men made up 69 percent of investors and women 22 percent, with the share of women rising. Mobile wallets and apps handled 56 percent of contributions.
The average individual investment was $2,420. More than 41 percent of investors joined more than one ICO in the year.
About 12 percent used robo-advisors or aggregation platforms to pick sales. First-time crypto buyers made up 9 percent of contributors, and whales investing over $50,000 made up 7.1 percent.
Investors looking for staking or yield made up 33 percent of backers. By region, interest came from North America at 27 percent, Europe at 24 percent and Asia at 21 percent.
Due diligence habits are changing. Over 43 percent of investors check token holder distribution before taking part, and Telegram hosted groups for 84 percent of upcoming ICOs.
How ICOs Perform After One Year
A study cited by one report tracked returns one year after launch. Most ICOs lost value.
About 6.89 percent fell to less than 0.001x, a near-total loss. Another 32.78 percent returned between 0.001x and 0.2x, and 28.37 percent returned 0.2x to 1x.
Taken together, 68.04 percent of ICOs ended the year below their starting price. The other 31.96 percent returned 1x or more.
Only 6.91 percent returned 10x to 100x. Just 1.44 percent reached 100x to 10,000x, and 0.14 percent passed 10,000x.
| Return after one year | Share of ICOs |
|---|---|
| Less than 0.001x | 6.89% |
| 0.001x to 0.2x | 32.78% |
| 0.2x to 1x | 28.37% |
| 1x to 10x | 23.47% |
| 10x to 100x | 6.91% |
| 100x to 10,000x | 1.44% |
| Over 10,000x | 0.14% |
Token supply plays a part in price. A launch guide by Vimal Joseph reports that airdrops with immediate full access led to about 72 percent more dumping than airdrops with a 90-day vesting schedule.
The same guide says airdrops under 10 percent of supply aimed at core users brought a four to eightfold rise in buyers. Wide distributions roughly doubled the number of sellers.
Total airdrop value fell to $4.5 billion in 2025 from $19 billion the year before. The average token vesting period rose to 14 months in 2025.
Failure, Fraud and Security Statistics
The overall ICO failure rate was 65.5 percent in 2025. The top cause was a lack of product-market fit, cited in 43 percent of failed ICOs.
Weak marketing and outreach followed at 41 percent, and having no working product at 38 percent. Poor tokenomics was a core issue in 27.6 percent of failures, and these causes overlap.
Teams lacking experience or transparency led to 19 percent of failures within six months. Regulatory non-compliance contributed to 14 percent, and projects without external audits failed at 2.4 times the rate of audited ones.
Fraud remains a concern. About 6.3 percent of ICOs showed signs of fraud or rug pulls in 2025, and 12 exit scams were recorded, down from 19 the year before.
Smart contract flaws were exploited in 11 ICOs, causing over $41 million in direct losses. Phishing attacks on participants rose 14.7 percent, and sybil attacks on whitelist sign-ups rose 22 percent.
Security work appears to help. Over 81 percent of successful ICOs ran third-party audits, and projects with bug bounty programs reported 61 percent fewer incidents.
The wider token market tells a similar story. CoinGecko found that 53.2 percent of about 20.2 million tokens launched over five years are no longer actively traded, and 11.6 million of those stopped trading in 2025.
Chainalysis reported at least $154 billion received by illicit addresses in 2025, with about $17 billion from scams. More than 62 percent of memecoins launched that year were flagged as possible rug pulls within 30 days.
Ethereum’s own ERC-20 documentation records more than $83.6 million in tokens lost after being sent to contracts that cannot handle them, as of June 2024.
ICO Regulation Statistics
Rules now shape how a token sale is planned. In the United States, the SEC issued a crypto asset interpretation in March 2026 on how securities laws apply to certain crypto assets.
On August 18, 2026, the SEC proposed Regulation Crypto Assets. It would create two exemptions: up to $5 million over four years, and up to $75 million in a 12-month period.
The proposal includes disclosure rules and keeps antifraud and antimanipulation provisions. It is not final, and the public comment deadline is October 20, 2026.
A separate bill, the CLARITY Act, stalled in the Senate in August 2026. One guide advises projects to plan for either outcome.
In the European Union, MiCA requires a compliant white paper before a public offer. New form and content rules took effect on December 23, 2025, and filings must use XHTML with inline XBRL tagging.
Other regions have moved too. One report says 17 countries had full ICO rules in 2025, and 63 percent of ICOs followed at least one compliance framework.
| Jurisdiction | Rule or development |
|---|---|
| United States | SEC proposal with $5 million and $75 million exemptions (not final) |
| European Union | MiCA white paper rules, XHTML with inline XBRL since December 23, 2025 |
| Switzerland | FINMA fast-tracked utility token registration, 21-day review |
| Japan | FSA requires pre-launch smart contract audits |
| United Arab Emirates | VARA ICO guidelines, registrations up 46% |
| Singapore | Real-time audit trail disclosure for token offerings |
| China and India | ICO bans remained in effect into mid-2025 |
Paid advertising adds another hurdle. Google requires advertiser verification and category certification for crypto ads, and approval can take six to eight weeks.
Where Raised Funds Go and What Services Cost
One report breaks down how ICO funds are used. Development and operations take 75 percent, a legal contingency fund takes 15 percent, and marketing and community outreach takes 10 percent.
A launch guide gives a different view of spending. It says most teams that complete a raise set aside 10 to 20 percent of the target for audits, legal work, launchpad fees and market making, with paid media taking the smallest share.
Planning takes time. The average pre-launch period was 3.5 months in 2025, and the guide advises 90 to 120 days for compliance and marketing work.
The market for ICO services is growing too. Verified Market Reports valued it at $5.3 billion in 2024 and projects $12.5 billion by 2033, a 10.3 percent compound annual growth rate for 2026 to 2033.
Costs go beyond development. Blockchain App Factory lists legal work, audits, KYC systems, marketing, liquidity planning and post-launch support as items that cut into the usable amount raised.
What the ICO Statistics Show
The numbers show two different pictures. Public token sales fell to about $58 million in Q2 2026, while venture investment ran into the billions.
Success is still hard to reach, with 34.5 percent of ICOs in 2025 hitting at least 75 percent of their goal. Audits, KYC, working products and marketing spend line up with better results.
Rules are also in flux, with the SEC proposal open for comment until October 20, 2026. Figures from different sources should be read with care, since definitions and methods vary.
