Why China banned ICOs: The grass mud horse coin and other ridiculous offerings

Since China issued a ban on all ICOs, the price of bitcoin tumbled and the startups who were looking to fundraise using an ICO have been thrown into a havoc. $394 million was contributed towards ICOs in the period from January to June 2017, as reported by the National Committee of Experts on Internet Financial Security Technology. With no regulation in place, fraud and speculation have become rampant.

Just how much frenzy was there? We found three examples of ridiculous ICOs (or crowdfunding projects that masqueraded as ICOs) offered on the market. They make a strong case in support of the decision to ban the fundraising activity altogether.

Started in mid-2017, MLGBI was a crowdfunding project looking to raise 5000 ETH, a popular cryptocurrency. The team behind MLGBI claimed that the acronym stands for Massive Linked Grid Basic Infrastructure, which referred to the blockchain platform they are trying to build.

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