In my previous article, I looked at the dawn, present and future potential of energy trading platforms, the most popular application of blockchain technology in the energy sector. In this article, I will cover energy-sector ICOs. After first taking a bird’s-eye view of overall ICO trends beyond energy, we will then consider the future of ICOs in the energy sector. The current state of ICOs Following a sharp increase in ICOs in 2017, the first half of 2018 saw ICOs continue to boom with over 100 each month. A downward trend began in the second half, however, and according to Coin Schedule, January 2019 had only 24. Figure 1 shows Coin Schedule’s number of ICOs implemented each month from January 2016 to January 2019.1  1. Although the numbers differ depending on the source, this data is quoted from Coin Schedule, which provides data from 2016 to the present. I believe it is sufficient to observe the trend. Other sources include ICObench and Coindesk ICO tracker.   Figure 2 shows the change in the amount of capital raised through ICOs and the cryptocurrency market capitalization over the same period. The peaks are shifted slightly from the cryptocurrency market cap but show the same trend – a current downturn. The March and June 2018 peaks consist primarily of the super-large Telegram and EOS ICOs, which raised $1.7 billion (approx. 187 billion yen2) and $4.2 billion (approx. 462 billion yen) respectively. 2. The exchange rate is 110 yen per $1. Overview of energy-sector ICOs According to Coin Schedule, of ICOs implemented in 2018, “Energy and Utilities” projects raised $322 million (approx. 35.4 billion yen), 1.5% of the total. From the second quarter of 2017 to the first quarter of 2018, blockchain-related energy-sector startups raised almost the same amount, $324 million, 75% of which…