Since Chinese authorities banned ICOs last year there have been few signs that they might have a change of heart. In fact, if anything, they appear to have hardened their position with a crackdown on “ICOs in disguise” and a standardisation of anti-ICO measures, both announced in the last few weeks.
However, for one Chinese businessman, things have gone too far and he’s not afraid to make his case publicly, even on “The Paper”, a state-funded website.
DotCom Bubble Comparison
Billionaire Cai Wensheng, founder of the Meitu selfie app and angel investor, has hit out at his government’s stance on both cryptocurrencies and ICOs. For him the much made comparisons between the dotcom bubble and the current ICO situation are valid, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that that the cryptocurrency phenomenon itself is a problem.
Hundreds of internet companies conducted IPOs in the late 1990s, Wensheng points out, and most of them went bust. However, he points out that “one Amazon is enough.”
The burn rate may be high, but if that’s the way that truly disruptive giant companies can be created, it will be worth it, according to the CEO of Meitu. By shutting down this route to Chinese companies, the government is closing the door to the potential world-changers which might emerge from the ICO space.
His comments echo those of self-proclaimed “godfather of Ethereum” Yanislav Malahov, who said this week that, “I foresee that in the next 5 years, many of the projects that exist currently will have disappeared.” However, such an eventuality should not be feared as their disappearance will “free up market share for the most successful ones.“
