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Top 3 ICOs to keep an eye on this Spring

by William BrightonMarch 6th, 2018

Too Long; Didn't Read

This winter’s correction took a toll on everyone’s morale. With the bull market craze seemingly gone, day trading or blindly throwing money at every ICO out there is unlikely to yield positive results. It’s time to stick to projects with solid fundamentals. Here are my top picks for upcoming ICOs, followed by my top picks for ongoing ICOs.

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featured image - Top 3 ICOs to keep an eye on this Spring

A bear market? No problem — just stick to fundamentals.

Top Upcoming ICOs:

1. Academy Token (ACAD)

Academy is an American project that solves a pressing problem and offers some of the best token economics out there. It’s also one of the very few ICOs you have the option to buy into with fiat money.

In 2016 only $106 Million were raised through ICOs; by the end of 2017 the amount blew up to $3.7 Billion — a whopping 3000% increase. With that, the demand for blockchain specialists has grown to the point where at the moment for every blockchain developer there are 14 jobs available.

There are several problems that make attempts to solve the crisis using traditional methods inadequate. The first is the pace at which the blockchain world is growing and changing, making it difficult and impractical for traditional universities to keep up with it — they simply can’t be constantly updating their curriculum and will struggle to find qualified teachers who aren’t lured by the premium on blockchain salaries. On the other hand, the lack of standards on non-accredited online courses exacerbates the problem by producing many poorly-trained developers and reducing the confidence of employers in such certificates.

Academy is the world’s first fully-U.S.-accredited school for blockchain. This status ensures the quality of their certifications since their programs are undergoing a rigorous academic vetting process. It also allows them to offer courses and programs to traditional universities. They have a 10-year track record of building online courses and have recently acquired SoftUni — Eastern Europe’s leading provider of IT education which won numerous awards, including Forbes Business Awards: Best Startup Business (2015), Innovation for Talent Development: Innovative Enterprise of the Year (2016), and has built a name for itself by providing the booming IT sector in the region with excellently-trained developers.

What are the benefits of the ACAD token?

For Students:

Priority course placement over students who opt to pay in fiat
Reduced course fees
Gamified Learning incentives
Developer job placements

For Corporations / Governments / Organisations:

Priority Course Placement for Staff Retraining
Priority Access to Trained Developers — bid for access to top 30% cohort
Opportunity to Shape the Curriculum through Advisory Node System

When a token is used for payment at Academy:

70% of that token will be burned

15% of the value will be credited to a dedicated scholarship fund
15% of the value will be credited to a community development fund which provides partial funding for the Incubator Accelerator program.

TOKEN SALE

Date — Pre-sale running now. ICO begins on March 15th, 2018.

Token — ACAD

Price — $2.00

UNSOLD TOKENS WILL BE BURNED

Platform — Ethereum

Accepts— ETH, BTC, BCH, LTC, FIAT($USD)

Hard cap — $50 Million USD

Sign up here for the Academy ICO

2. Unibright (UBT)

Unibright will help get big enterprises on the blockchain, while offering a very low hardcap ($13.5 Mil) and a high percentage of tokens (67%) allocated to the crowdsale.

Many businesses are looking to incorporate blockchain solutions in their existing services, but are hindered by the lack of know-how and the shortage of qualified and experienced developers. Unibright will provide a framework which builds an abstraction layer on top of the underlying technology and makes it easy for businesses and individuals to implement their own solutions by using simple templates, which can be tailored to their specific needs. All of this makes dabbing into blockchain technology less risky and more cost-efficient for enterprises.

The Unibright Framework is built upon an existing, cloud-based integration platform which is productive with clients from the banking sector and production industry.

The team behind Unibright is also running the German company SPO Consulting GmbH, which has been providing SAP related software solutions for more than 20 years to big clients like Lufthansa, Shell, Samsung, and Siemens to name a few.

Unibright boasts partnerships with Iconiqlab, Ambisafe, and Microsoft.

The UBT token will be the utility token that powers the platform and the only available payment option for using any of Unibright services, so this one can be a slow burner.

TOKEN SALE

Date — Pre-Sale mid-March 2018; ICO — April 10th 2018 till May 10th 2018.

Token — UBT

Price — $0.14

Hard cap — $13.5 Million USD UNSOLD TOKENS WILL BE BURNED

Minimum purchase — 100 UBT

Platform — Ethereum

Accepts — BTC, ETH (and others via Shapeshift.io)

Visit the Unibright website

3. LanceChain (LANC)

LanceChain will match freelancers and employers for 0% platform commission. It will utilize a freemium business model and offer tiered subscriptions with various discounts and incentives available to token-holders.

One of the biggest problems on the freelancer market today is the high fees charged by platforms. UpWork, one of the most notable such platforms, charges its freelancers as much as 20% commission on projects under $500, and as little as 5% on projects exceeding $10,000; employers aren’t spared either — they have to pay 2.75% on each transaction on the platform.

Lancechain Advantages

0% commission: LanceChain won’t charge neither freelancers nor employers any commission
security: funds will be stored in a smart contract escrow system and protected against fraudulent chargebacks as all payments will be made using the LANC token.
dispute settlement: Unbiased and independent subject matter experts will have the final say in case of dispute.The SMEs will be community members elected by LANC token holders. To incentivise the active involvement of token holders & SMEs we will fairly split the dispute fees so both parties can make additional money.
talent vetting: LANC token holders can earn additional income by taking part in assessing the freelancers, supported by the platform’s experts. Experienced team of HRs & SMEs will be able to help throughout the whole process of finding & hiring proven top talent.
time tracking tool: that will be required for freelancers are charging per hour. Time spent working will be tracked and logged.
screen grab tool: employers will take screenshots of the freelancers screen at random intervals, making sure they are working on the project. The screenshots generated will also help the SMEs in eventual dispute resolution.
task management system: ensuring the project requirements are understood and followed, the progress is timely and adequately reported and the quality is acceptable

Freemium model

The core platform functionality will be open to everyone free of charge. Users will be able to choose to pay for enhanced functionalities they picked or subscribe for more advanced premium plans. The tiered plans will range from $19.95 to $99.95 per month and will be available discounted or completely free to LANC token-holders with amount of tokens above a certain threshold. (read more in the whitepaper)

HOW WILL FREELANCERS AND BUSINESS OWNERS BE PROTECTED OF PRICE VOLATILITY?

To secure the value we will aim to provide an optional, added value service on LanceChain, which will allow fixing the price of LANC for transaction(s). Advanced algorithm will place an opposite exchange order at the time of the transaction which will hedge against change in crypto asset value. Any loss that may occur from change in the LANC value will be compensated by the gains from the opposite position. As soon as the LANC is withdrawn, both positions will be closed and the hedge cost will be the spread between the parties. This will provide additional liquidity on the LANC aftermarket.

TOKEN SALE

Date — Kick-off week begins on March 15th, 2018 with 42% bonus. Pre-Sale — April 2018 with 36% bonus; Main Token Sale — May 2018 with 0% to 18% bonus.

Token — LANC

Price — between 1400 and 2000 LANC per 1 ETH (depending on when you buy)

Platform — Ethereum

Accepts — ETH

Hard cap — 32, 000 ETH

UNSOLD TOKENS WILL BE BURNED

Visit the LanceChain website

Top Ongoing ICOs:

And those are my top picks for already started ICOs.

1. FoxTrading (FOXT)

Forex&Crypto trading signals and an auto-trading service (NOT AN EXCHANGE!)
from the experienced team behind Fox Binary Signals & partnership with Vantage FX
extremely low hardcap ($5 Million)
Fox Trading Token (FOXT) will be used to pay for services like signals, robots, and indicators on the platform
only ICO investors to receive profits from the trading pool based on the initial investment and amount they hold + a lifetime autotrading service
API to connect the service to all major exchanges
token burn program

TOKEN SALE

Date — Ongoing

Token — FOXT

Price — 1 ETH = 1440 FOXT (currently 20% bonus)

Platform — Ethereum

Accepts — ETH

Hard cap — $5 Million USD

UNSOLD TOKENS WILL BE BURNED

Visit the website

2. CoinMetro (XCM)

One-stop crypto platform developed by the team behind forex broker FXPIG
Low fees — 0.1% *****ICO participants get 25% lifetime fee discount. Additional fee discounts depending on the amount of XCM held.
ALT/FIAT pairings
Crypto ETFs, Margin Lending, and Leverage Trading
Instant deposits/withdrawals/liquidation & Debit Cards
Tokenized Asset Management
Token Buyback and Burn program
Focus on customer support & regulatory compliance
ICO launching & vetting platform

TOKEN SALE

Date — Ongoing

Token — XCM

Price — currently €0.12 up to €0.15 if hardcap is reached

Platform — Ethereum

Accepts — ETH, BTC, BCH, LTC

Hard cap — 300 Million XCM

UNSOLD TOKENS WILL BE BURNED

Visit the website

3. The Abyss (ABYSS)

digital distribution platform on the blockchain
great ways for developers to monetize their games
great ways for gamers to monetize their in-game activity and gaming-related content (streams, reviews, fan art, guides)
first project to implement the new DAICO fundraising model, proposed recently by Vitalik Buterin
solid tokenomics and a token burn program
developed by the experienced team behind Destiny Games
open to U.S. residents and regulated under Regulation D