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ARTICLE · 03 JANUARY 2018

Year In Review: Top Cryptocurrency Stories Of 2017

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP
Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP
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Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP

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After lingering on the periphery of financial markets for the past several years, cryptocurrency has finally started to move into the mainstream.

United StatesTechnology
Kevin Scanlan
Kevin Scanlan
Joshua Rittenberg
Joshua Rittenberg
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After lingering on the periphery of financial markets for the past several years, cryptocurrency has finally started to move into the mainstream. While the explosion in Bitcoin's value dominated the news headlines, cryptocurrency in 2017 was filled with worthy topics of discussion. For the purposes of this article, we narrowed it down to what we see as the top three cryptocurrency-related stories of 2017. 

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ICOs and Regulators

In the past 12 months, markets witnessed a rapid rise in the number and value of initial coin offerings (ICOs), a fundraising model whereby a venture will issue a cryptographic token in exchange for startup capital. The nature and use of these tokens varies greatly from project to project. ICOs rapidly went from being an infrequent niche offering to a common occurrence that in some cases attracted more than $100 million. Hundreds of ICO-backed projects were launched, and all-time

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