According to a report by the PwC consulting company and the Swiss Crypto Valley association, the initial coins offer (ICO) is thriving despite the decline in cryptocurrency prices. PwC found that the ICO volume reached a new record in the first half of 2018.

According to the report, from January to May 2018, the ICO volume is already two times higher than in 2017. PwC Switzerland writes in the attached press release: "in total, 537 ICOs with a total value of over USD 13.7 billion have been registered since the beginning of the year. For comparison, in 2017, 552 ICOs were created with a value of just over USD 7 billion. The size of ICO has nearly doubled since last year. Particularly noteworthy are the ICO Telegram and EOS, which have reached billions. The telegram collected $ 1.7 billion via ICO, while EOS collected over twice as much, or $ 4.1 billion".

According to the ICO report, the United States, Singapore and Switzerland are currently the three most important ICO centers in the world, largely due to progress in regulation. Especially Switzerland benefits from the Zug Crypto Valley, focusing on startups based on Blockchain and fintech. Smaller countries and cities, such as Hong Kong, Gibraltar, Malta and Liechtenstein, have had some success after copying the friendly models of Singapore and Switzerland.

Regarding the regulation, the authors identified three different approaches that are currently implemented worldwide:

The United States uses a centralized system in which all tokens offered by ICO are sold as securities, while in Europe predominantly different regulations, for example, FINMA classifies tokens into three sub-types: assets, payments and usability of tokens that are not a real investment, but allow the buyer has direct access to the ICO product or service, and in Asia the regulation is very heterogeneous, ranging from a strict ban to the active promotion of ICO projects.

Traditional financial institutions remain skeptical about the ICO and criticize the lack of supervision in some jurisdictions. Nasdaq CEO, Adena Friedman, has recently stated that ICOs pose a "serious risk" to retail investors due to regulatory shortcomings. Earlier this month, SEC chairman Jay Clayton repeated the agency's view that ICOs are securities and should be regulated as such.

Let's now take a look at the Bitcoin technical picture at the H4 time frame. The Double Bottom technical pattern might have been made at the level of $5,742 and now the market should be in the counter-trend corrective upward cycle. The key intraday technical resistance is seen at the level of $6,519 and the key resistance for the bears is seen at the level of $6,809. Until those two levels are clearly violated, the downtrend will continue.