Initial Coin offerings: what rights do investors have?

This paper reviews the growing literature on initial coin offerings (ICOs) and provides original evidence of the investor protection on ICOs from 37 countries. We show that the anti-director rights and anti-self-dealing index are positively associated with the country-level raised fund of ICOs after...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The European journal of finance 2021-03, Vol.27 (4-5), p.305-320
Main Authors: Zhao, Xiaoju, Hou, Wenxuan, An, Jiafu, Liu, Xianda, Zhang, Yun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Disclosure
Fintech
Fraud
Initial Coin Offering
Investor Protection
Investors
Literature reviews
Shareholder right
Teams
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Summary:This paper reviews the growing literature on initial coin offerings (ICOs) and provides original evidence of the investor protection on ICOs from 37 countries. We show that the anti-director rights and anti-self-dealing index are positively associated with the country-level raised fund of ICOs after controlling for economic and culture factors. The disclosure quality and investor rights as specified in the Whitepapers are generally poor and they are found to be important to raise more funds in ICOs. We argue that the lack of (self-) discipline poses a threat to investor protections. Around 60% Whitepaper do not disclose information on the use of proceeds or management team. Around 80% ICOs do not entitle investors the rights for dividend or vote. Our findings suggest the needs of regulating ICOs to protect investors.
ISSN:1351-847X
1466-4364
DOI:10.1080/1351847X.2020.1858130