Extracting informational cues between initial coin offering projects and the public

Abstract

An initial coin offering (ICO) seeks to raise initial investments for companies by selling crypto tokens to individuals interested in crowdfunding. As ICOs have gained popularity, a lack of information regarding startup companies' prior financial status and business health has led to information asymmetry between potential investors and ICO projects. This study explores the informational cues necessary to bridge this gap. Employing signaling theory, we elucidate the presence of information asymmetry and conduct two case analyses to identify relevant informational cues. Twitter data from two ICO projects (Stratis and NEO), which achieved the highest return on investment at the time of data collection, are extracted and analyzed to identify informational themes. Our findings reveal multiple and distinctive themes of informational cues for each ICO project, demonstrating that transmitted signals vary across different stages and are generated by both the coin publisher and the public. This research illuminates the flow of informational cues between ICO initiators and potential investors on social media. By analyzing online communication threads using qualitative methods, this study significantly contributes to the understanding of information asymmetry in the context of ICOs.