Gnosis, the ethereum based prediction market, has raised $12.5 million in just ten minutes, valuing one Gnosis token (GNO) at an incredible $31 with the total valuation of the project standing at $300 million.
According to reports, the very first transaction sent $2 million in one go, with a total of just 767 transactions sending 250,000 eth, giving the project seed funding of some $12.5 million.
Unlike most ICOs, the sale was designed somewhat differently. They used a dutch auction, with the price intending to decrease as time goes by. However, there is clearly a thirst in ethereum’s community, whether speculative or otherwise, for ICOs, thus it seems everyone rushed at the highest price on offer.
That means Gnosis retains some 95% of the tokens, or around $290 million if they retain their $31 value once they begin free trading with Poloniex already announcing they are to be listed next week. The other $12 million is of course held by the eth investors, giving it a combined valuation of $300 million.
Some consider the set-up to be a mess-up. Eth based ICOs have been selling out way faster than hot cakes can dream for some time now in what some call a new gold-rush. Gnosis, therefore, is facing criticism, with many saying they should have known this would have sold out in minutes as most ignore their dutch auction set-up (if they were aware of it at all), giving them an unrealistic evaluation.
The space, however, is still very new and experimenting. The ICO craze, with many of them sold in minutes, is seen by some as a problem. Suggestions have been raised on how the crowds can be slowed down. Gnosis has apparently tried one such suggestion with results clearly showing it to be a failure.
The project is based on harnessing crowd wisdom. They are to give us more objective information by, in a way, combining the hive-mind’s knowledge. It’s an experiment. It certainly won’t work out perfectly. It certainly will have complications. One of them being, was the crowed wise to insta-buy at such crazy evaluation?
Perhaps. It is doubtful any of them cares about such niceties as objective fundamentals, gambling instead that the hype might allow them to sell it higher. And if they took the wrong bet, so what? Living at the edge babeh!
Welcome to 2017, a year when the millennial generation takes the upstream against the geopolitical currents, desperately swimming against the river to grab that piece of the future. While in other corners they fathom in their mouth at the specter of 1930s, here we dance at the tune of glittery 1920s.
Flush with cash, drunk with flying cars, let the two tribes race fast and high. Gold rush here, hate there, who will win only time will say.
