About ICOs

For those new to the cryptocurrency world, an ICO (Initial coin offering) is a mean used by startups to raise funds, and eventually deliver a cryptocurrency project. Many ICOs are well-known for retrieving exponential returns to their investors, while others have been proven to be just scams. There are dozens of factors to consider before investing in an ICO, and my goal with this analysis is to help the community identifying market opportunities based on my experience and personal opinion.

Kin Report

What is Kin?

It is a general purpose cryptocurrency implemented in the Ethereum Blockchain used to buy everyday digital services.

Starting Date:

September 12th, 2017 at 9am E.T. Registration by September 9th, 2017.

Hard Cap:

$125Mln.

Green Flags

1. Extraordinary team: Kin's ecosystem is being implemented by the same team that built and maintains the globally used Kik Messenger App. This means that brilliant figures like Ted Livingston (Kik's Founder & CEO), Peter Heinke (Kik's CFO & COO), and many other geniuses are leading to the success of this project.

2. Venture Support: Kin has already raised $50Mln during its pre-ICO.

3. Community: There are already 14,000 registered participants for the ICO - Tokens will be very likely to sell out quickly!

4. Near Goal: Implement Kin along with Kik Messenger allowing this token to be reached by the app's 15Mln monthly users.

Red Flags

1. Token Usability: The innovated nature of this token is questionable . How is it different from paying a service with Venmo or Paypal? The Kin foundation faces great challenge in trying to compete with a wide array of prestigious payment platforms.

2. Precedents: According to Fortune, "Kik unveiled a sort of virtual currency called Kik Points in 2014, which it shuttered in the fall." Kin is basically a second attempt to the previous idea of Kik Points.

3. Token Distribution: Only 10% will be distribuited during the ICO, and the allocation of the remaining tokens is unclear.

Conclusion

Institutional Investors: In general, any cryptocurrency investment portfolio shouldn't allocate more than 30% of their funds to ICOs due to their high risk. Out of this 30%, I wouldn't recommend to allocate more than 5% of the funds to this project. Finally, I would cash out the ICO tokens at the very first bullish movement that returns between 15% and 25% on the initial investment.
Individual Investors: I would invest 15% to 20% of the monthly investment budget, and cash out the ICO tokens after at least 15% return mark on the initial investment.

Note

Thank you for reading! Remember that every investment involves risk, and you should conduct your own research before making a decision.