Called a fund management platform for the decentralized economy, ICONOMI, an Ethereum-based investment fund for cryptocurrencies and blockchains, has raised over $8.9 million in operational capital and equity through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO). ICONOMI raised $3 million in the last three days alone of its ICO, which closes at 4 p.m. EST today.
Developed by Cashila as a disintermediated alternative to the traditional fund management industry, Slovenia-based ICONOMI’s capitalization makes it the 20th most successful crowdfunding project ever, drawing funds from 3,100 investors in 34 days.
At the time of the OCI close, ICO token holders will hold total ownership of ICONOMI. Investors will receive “ICN” tokens functioning as shares.
As the first fund management platform focused specifically on blockchain and cryptocurrency, ICONOMI gives investors a unique chance to participate in this expanding market.
Investors can choose between actively or passively-managed funds.
Operating with full transparency, ICONOMI will provide varying expected yield and risk profiles.
The first ICONOMI funds were presented at Ethereum’s Devcon2 last week in Shanghai:
ICONOMI.INDEX is an index investment fund comprised of cryptocurrencies that minimizes volatility, while ICONOMI.PERFORMANCE is an actively managed fund that targets higher yields.
The ICONOMI Cryptocurrencies Index (ICNX) is currently available for review. Both funds will launch in Q4 2016.
Additional trader-created custom funds will be available in 2017.
Unlike traditional managed funds, ICONOMI investors will be able to liquidate or withdraw their holdings at any time, 24/7, by selling ICONOMI tokens on exchanges or at POS terminals using the ICONOMI Visa debit card. The debit card will link to the account owner’s share of ICONOMI funds.
All fiat funds are held at a regulated, insured bank while all cryptocurrencies are held by escrow partners with multisig wallets.
ICONOMI developers have deployed state-of-the-art security practices including a hardware random key generator, extensive encryption, and multifactor authentication for withdrawals.
ICONOMI token owners will earn weekly profit dividends in the form of ETH when the funds launch. Dividends will come from trading fees under ICONOMI management and from fees of investment funds of independent traders, which will list on the ICONOMI platform in accordance with the fee split schedule.
Investors with fiat currencies who buy tokens in ICONOMI’s ICO will be subject to EU-wide AML/KYC compliance standards. The standards require supplementary verification for added tiers of investment.
Also read: Investing in bitcoin: smaller funds dominate, institutional investors stay on the sidelines
“ICONOMI’s success is proving that the idea of ‘uberization’ is best for far more than consumer-level services,” said Tim M. Zagar, co-founder and director of operations and business. “There is tremendous demand for a platform like ICONOMI to cut out the middleman, lowering the barrier to entry for investment into cryptocurrencies.”
“What we’re seeing is that crowdfunding will be considered an option for capital raise in all sectors, even in industries as sophisticated as financial technology,” said Jani Valjavec, co-founder and director of technology and trading. “With this funding, ICONOMI will have the resources to begin the inevitable disruption of finance.”
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