Which ICO in 2017-2018 left the strongest impression on you?

[KryptoBull]

The ICO craze of 2017-2018 was a wild ride that left an indelible mark on the crypto landscape. While some projects like Cardano (ADA) emerged as giants, many others faded into obscurity, or worse^[1], were exposed as scams^[2].

Unfortunately, I was among those who experienced the sting of losses, having invested in the Credits (CS) project. Despite its promising initial promise, the CS token price plummeted over the years, dropped 266 times from its ATH price. The experience was disheartening, and I've largely tried to put it behind me, focusing on my current work in translation.

I'm curious to hear your experiences during that era:

• Did you participate in any ICOs during 2017-2018?
• If participated, which one left the most lasting impression on you?
• That ICO turned out to be a success or a failure?
• That ICO brought you profit or loss?

References:
[1] Nearly Half of 2017’s Cryptocurrency 'ICO' Projects Have Already Died
[2] Over 80% ICO projects in 2017 are ‘identified scams,’ Statis study finds
Note:

• It was posted first in that topic, on Bitcointalk
• I leave the source link to avoid plagiarism accusation.
• I excluded/ included minor things from an original thread ^{if necessary}.

[LUCKMCFLY]

I did have participation in a project, it was a privacy coin called DeepOnion and the truth is I didn't take advantage of it much, I only arrived at a certain point where things were basically good, in fact I had almost $2k in dollars, but at that time I didn't I had an idea of how these things worked with crypto, with bitcoin, I thought that coins like these, lso toeksn and all that had the same behavior as bitcoin, I was really very ignorant, therefore when I had the equivalent I didn't take advantage of it and I thought that That investment was going to go further, in fact the ATH of that coin was 20usd, but later I think it became a total scam and although that coin still exists, I think its value is less than $20, which I find very unpleasant .

For those who kept the currency it was something even more unpleasant, but it is something that taught many of us about this world and of course after that experience is when I started reading books and seeing everything related to the market, with market speculation, All this.

[TomPluz]

Many members of this forum must have been exposed to the crazy ICO times on those years when a project with even questionable use-cases and team behind it would get the backing of many small investors, skyrocket in value in crypto exchanges and then suddenly will fall from the sky leaving many people holding empty plastic bags. the market at that time was magically mesmerized with ICO thing...and so scammers and fraudsters took notice and they decided they wanted a big share of the pie too...and this is actually one big evidence why anti-crypto people are adamant in their conviction that cryptocurrency industry is just a bunch of scams and made up of scalawags whose appetite for money from other people is insatiable. Greed defined the whole era yet this is still true up to these days as we can never get rid of human nature. Unfortunately, I was one of the victims of many ICOs with many having good potential but all of them ending up dead months after their stellar introduction. Out of the many, I can still remember MobileGo (MGO) which raised $53 million on its ICO run and has no more value as of today.

[hugeblack]

I think that experiences of losing money are not a problem compared to fraud, scammers like Bitconnect, ACChain leave a bad mark on all cryptocurrencies.
Therefore, although scammers have become very lazy now, fraud is more harmful than just losing a few dollars.

[Jamal Aezaz]

That was a crazy Era man.
I had invested in many ICOs. but it's unfortunate that I couldn't make any profit at the end. because I was so fond of HODLIng ICO tokens that i bought. so I keept them hodling in hope of long term profit. but 99% of them became worthless.
Still I earned a lot of money that time. by joining bounties. managing bounties. and working in other positiosn with ICOs. i remember one Token I worked with was called DENT. their CEO gave me a Token Bonus along with my actual salary. and those tokens value reached to 21 BTC at some point. but I didn't sold them that time. I wish I sold them. lol

[yhiaali3]

Yes, I experienced the ICO craze in 2017-2018. It was a boom period for ICO projects and thousands of projects appeared, but unfortunately most of them were fraudulent projects that gave Crypto a bad reputation.

The most famous scam coin as I recall was BitConnect. But fortunately I didn't buy it.

I remember that there was a new ICO called MeMe, as I remember, that rose to large numbers and then declined. I bought large quantities from it and made some profits when it rose, but after that it started to decline and continued. It later turned out to be a scam and I lost a lot of money.

[Mr. Magkaisa]

       -   I don't have any experience making money with ICO project campaigns because I never got around to it. However, I heard that during 2017, there was a lot of profit in ICOs because it can be compared to the executive income of participants in ICO campaigns.

It's a shame I didn't catch that time, but that's okay because it wasn't too late for me to learn about cryptocurrency. And until now, I've been getting profit apart from the campaigns I'm part of and crypto trading.

[LogitechMouse]

I'm curious to hear your experiences during that era:

• Did you participate in any ICOs during 2017-2018?
• If participated, which one left the most lasting impression on you?
• That ICO turned out to be a success or a failure?
• That ICO brought you profit or loss?

I don't know that much anymore about what happened in 2017-2018, and IIRC, I'm only involved in a few things that are related to ICO because, at that time, I was still a newbie, trying to learn anything.

1. Yes I participated. How? Through bounty campaigns in Bitcointalk. I'm joining various campaigns whether it would be the signature campaign, social media campaign, or any kind of campaign. If you're pertaining to invested then no. I didn't invest at all in any ICOs because I didn't have any money back then, and the amount of money that I'm getting in bounty campaigns isn't that high as well.

2. None. I'm trying to remember projects back then which made me think "Oh this project will become successful 3-5 years from now." but nah. There might be some that became successful, but most of the ICO projects back then became either an abandoned coin or a scam coin. If there are some ICOs back then that were successful until now, care to share them here.

3. I can't remember. It's because I'm not focusing on investing in ICOs at that time, and I don't have time to do some in-depth research about these new projects. I remember a project where the so-called "Bitcoin Jesus" Roger Ver was part of the team, and back then, if a famous person was in your team, your hard cap (maximum amount of money that they can get in a token sale) would be reached in a few days. That project reached its market cap in only 3 days I think. To cut the story short, they just used Ver to hype the project, but it didn't become a successful project.

4. Can I consider joining in bounty campaign for my profit? I mean I didn't buy any of their tokens, but I'm involved still in ICOs but in a different way only. I remember the project called "Helbiz" where I joined their translation campaign, they gave me their tokens as a reward, and I was lucky that the token had value, and I immediately sold it. 100% profit. After that, I used that money to buy a new smartphone.

[KryptoBull]

I did have participation in a project, it was a privacy coin called DeepOnion and the truth is I didn't take advantage of it much, I only arrived at a certain point where things were basically good, in fact I had almost $2k in dollars, but at that time I didn't I had an idea of how these things worked with crypto, with bitcoin, I thought that coins like these, lso toeksn and all that had the same behavior as bitcoin, I was really very ignorant, therefore when I had the equivalent I didn't take advantage of it and I thought that That investment was going to go further, in fact the ATH of that coin was 20usd, but later I think it became a total scam and although that coin still exists, I think its value is less than $20, which I find very unpleasant .

For those who kept the currency it was something even more unpleasant, but it is something that taught many of us about this world and of course after that experience is when I started reading books and seeing everything related to the market, with market speculation, All this.

I know DeepOnion, it used to be very famous but I didn't invest in it. ICO 2017 created a lot of unrealistic dreams, and we should have taken profits!

Unfortunately, I was one of the victims of many ICOs with many having good potential but all of them ending up dead months after their stellar introduction. Out of the many, I can still remember MobileGo (MGO) which raised $53 million on its ICO run and has no more value as of today.

I have the feeling that at that time investors had more money than they do now, it was normal for a project to raise tens of millions of dollars. Currently, a project with an investment of several million USD is already a great success 

I think that experiences of losing money are not a problem compared to fraud, scammers like Bitconnect, ACChain leave a bad mark on all cryptocurrencies.
Therefore, although scammers have become very lazy now, fraud is more harmful than just losing a few dollars.

I hope that with the development of the market, investors will have more information and will not fall into fraudulent projects anymore. Economic damage can lead to mental and health damage!

I remember one Token I worked with was called DENT. their CEO gave me a Token Bonus along with my actual salary. and those tokens value reached to 21 BTC at some point. but I didn't sold them that time. I wish I sold them. lol

Wow, 21 BTC! Truly a great asset at that time. How many USD and how many BTC are the DENT tokens you are holding currently worth?

I remember that there was a new ICO called MeMe, as I remember, that rose to large numbers and then declined. I bought large quantities from it and made some profits when it rose, but after that it started to decline and continued. It later turned out to be a scam and I lost a lot of money.

The crypto market is interesting, there are many ICO projects that I have never known about. Condolences to you, hope all your losses at that time have been compensated by profits in 2021.

       -   I don't have any experience making money with ICO project campaigns because I never got around to it. However, I heard that during 2017, there was a lot of profit in ICOs because it can be compared to the executive income of participants in ICO campaigns.

It's a shame I didn't catch that time, but that's okay because it wasn't too late for me to learn about cryptocurrency. And until now, I've been getting profit apart from the campaigns I'm part of and crypto trading.

I think there were many people who made money, but most will lose money in the ICO wave. Money doesn't suddenly appear, one person's profit is another person's loss!

I don't know that much anymore about what happened in 2017-2018, and IIRC, I'm only involved in a few things that are related to ICO because, at that time, I was still a newbie, trying to learn anything.

1. Yes I participated. How? Through bounty campaigns in Bitcointalk. I'm joining various campaigns whether it would be the signature campaign, social media campaign, or any kind of campaign. If you're pertaining to invested then no. I didn't invest at all in any ICOs because I didn't have any money back then, and the amount of money that I'm getting in bounty campaigns isn't that high as well.

2. None. I'm trying to remember projects back then which made me think "Oh this project will become successful 3-5 years from now." but nah. There might be some that became successful, but most of the ICO projects back then became either an abandoned coin or a scam coin. If there are some ICOs back then that were successful until now, care to share them here.

3. I can't remember. It's because I'm not focusing on investing in ICOs at that time, and I don't have time to do some in-depth research about these new projects. I remember a project where the so-called "Bitcoin Jesus" Roger Ver was part of the team, and back then, if a famous person was in your team, your hard cap (maximum amount of money that they can get in a token sale) would be reached in a few days. That project reached its market cap in only 3 days I think. To cut the story short, they just used Ver to hype the project, but it didn't become a successful project.

4. Can I consider joining in bounty campaign for my profit? I mean I didn't buy any of their tokens, but I'm involved still in ICOs but in a different way only. I remember the project called "Helbiz" where I joined their translation campaign, they gave me their tokens as a reward, and I was lucky that the token had value, and I immediately sold it. 100% profit. After that, I used that money to buy a new smartphone.

+ Thank you for your very detailed sharing. Bounty hunter is also an important and quite safe profession because it does not require cash investments in the market. Congratulations because you have won a smartphone from bounties 

[MrSpasybo]

• Did you participate in any ICOs during 2017-2018?
• If participated, which one left the most lasting impression on you?
• That ICO turned out to be a success or a failure?
• That ICO brought you profit or loss?

1. In 2017, I participated in ICO, because I saw friends and many channels talking about the potential of ICO, as a new form of capital mobilization to replace IPO for convenience and cost savings, reaching global investors...
2. The project I participate in is GoldReward (hope I don't remember a wrong name), MLM and high interest loans like Bitconnect!
3. This project failed shortly after the demise of Bitconnect, and it never came back!
4. Nothing. Initially the project was good, my investment of $150 turned into $570 thanks to the increase in token price, but my account was taken over by bad guys. The reason is that I created an account through fake myetherwallet website from a KOL. At least I got my first lesson in this market 😂

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

Although I was not really too experienced about crypto back then, due to the need to make more income, my friend introduced me to doing so many airdrops for some new project that just started in that year. I just realized that so many of those projects are dead, and definitely from our airdrop promotion, so many investors invested in some of those dead projects, and they probably have run a loss. I experienced losses with a few ICOs, but I stopped and only invested after the coin had been listed on the exchange.

[KryptoBull]

1. In 2017, I participated in ICO, because I saw friends and many channels talking about the potential of ICO, as a new form of capital mobilization to replace IPO for convenience and cost savings, reaching global investors...
2. The project I participate in is GoldReward (hope I don't remember a wrong name), MLM and high interest loans like Bitconnect!
3. This project failed shortly after the demise of Bitconnect, and it never came back!
4. Nothing. Initially the project was good, my investment of $150 turned into $570 thanks to the increase in token price, but my account was taken over by bad guys. The reason is that I created an account through fake myetherwallet website from a KOL. At least I got my first lesson in this market 😂

New investors often encounter similar technical problems, unfortunately the worst case scenario is being scammed into creating an account from a fake website. Currently, this form of fraud is still very popular, especially when scam websites pay a lot of money to advertise everywhere. What we can be happy about is that the MLM trend ended in 2018, otherwise many other investors would have been scammed!

I experienced losses with a few ICOs, but I stopped and only invested after the coin had been listed on the exchange.

Wow, you've participated in so many ICOs that you can't remember and name one project that stands out  Waiting and investing after the token is listed on CEXs is a wise decision, it helps investors avoid many risks because the CEXs team has helped users check the project carefully!

[Fivestar4everMVP]

I got into crypto in 2016 and I think invested in my first ico in that same year, and I remembered vividly that the first ever ico invested in was Kuwait coin, the developer of this project promised heaven and earth, he did not run the normal ico which I believe we all are most familiar with, but rather, he ran an IEO (initial exchange offering) which means, he got the coin listed on an exchange which have gone into obscurity now, from the exchange, we invested, and after the IEO was over, the coin started trading on the exchange but the developer was yet to distribute the coins we bought, and after about 2 to 3 days after the coin started trading on the exchange, the next news we the investors heard was that the developer had ran away with out money, and that it was a scam all along.

And since this was my very first project I am investing in crypto, the loss has a devastating effect on me and my mental strength, for several weeks, I could not think straight, for it was everything I had at that time I invest in that project, and this loss made me lose faith and interest in crypto and for like 3 to 4 months, I was away from crypto.

Later came back to continue the journey, but this was after I had completely healed from that first experience.
After that first experience, I still invested in some projects which paid off, others still either turned out to be scam, or the project died even before it began, in all of this though, that first project (Kuwait coin) was one that gave me the most bad impression on crypto at that time, it's something I can never forget.

[KryptoBull]

I got into crypto in 2016 and I think invested in my first ico in that same year, and I remembered vividly that the first ever ico invested in was Kuwait coin, the developer of this project promised heaven and earth, he did not run the normal ico which I believe we all are most familiar with, but rather, he ran an IEO (initial exchange offering) which means, he got the coin listed on an exchange which have gone into obscurity now, from the exchange, we invested, and after the IEO was over, the coin started trading on the exchange but the developer was yet to distribute the coins we bought, and after about 2 to 3 days after the coin started trading on the exchange, the next news we the investors heard was that the developer had ran away with out money, and that it was a scam all along.

And since this was my very first project I am investing in crypto, the loss has a devastating effect on me and my mental strength, for several weeks, I could not think straight, for it was everything I had at that time I invest in that project, and this loss made me lose faith and interest in crypto and for like 3 to 4 months, I was away from crypto.

Later came back to continue the journey, but this was after I had completely healed from that first experience.
After that first experience, I still invested in some projects which paid off, others still either turned out to be scam, or the project died even before it began, in all of this though, that first project (Kuwait coin) was one that gave me the most bad impression on crypto at that time, it's something I can never forget.

My condolences to you because you had an unhappy experience with Kuwait coin, I didn't even know it because I joined the market in 2017, right at the hottest time of the crypto market and also lost money but maybe not as heavy as you.

I believe that every experience in the market has its own value: success creates motivation, failure creates caution. It's great that you're back and profitable from new projects in this market. The market always has opportunities for all of us, as long as we don't surrender, good things are always ahead!

[Fivestar4everMVP]

*Snip

My condolences to you because you had an unhappy experience with Kuwait coin, I didn't even know it because I joined the market in 2017, right at the hottest time of the crypto market and also lost money but maybe not as heavy as you.

I believe that every experience in the market has its own value: success creates motivation, failure creates caution. It's great that you're back and profitable from new projects in this market. The market always has opportunities for all of us, as long as we don't surrender, good things are always ahead!

In this space, blessed is the man that falls, then rises up and keeps moving, but woe to him who falls and remains there, and refuses to rise up again.
That experience is something Ive long forgotten, I mean it did shake me, but I also did not allow that to kill my zeal for crypto, and gladly, my not giving up have paid off big time, regardless of the fact that I am not where I dream to be yet, but then, I am still grateful for how much far I've come, all that I've achieved in terms of knowledge, and financial stability.