ICO success factors: a regulatory and statistical approach on white paper disclosure documents

This thesis examines disclosure requirements for Initial Coin Offerings. An overview about the field of FinTech is given. The functionality of ICOs as well as the risks and opportunities are elaborated. A special focus is given to the white paper, a disclosure document voluntarily released by ICO issuers. It can be compared to the EU prospectus regulation, regulating the issuance of a prospectus for financial products, however the EU regulation does not always apply. Economic literature provides insights into success factors of ICOs which this thesis aims to amplify with the statistical analysis of a dataset of 195 ICOs and 36 explanatory variables of qualitative and quantitative nature. The number of people enrolled in the ICOs Telegram channel, a larger issuing team, a twitter presence, a larger number of advisors to the ICO, a positive Telegram sentiment and the disclosure of information regarding issuers in the White Paper all influence the success probability of an ICO in a positive way. The presence of a Telegram channel and photographs of team members included in the White Paper influence the success probability in a negative way.