I have stopped investing in ICOs. Up until early December of 2017 one can get very good returns from just flipping their ICO tokens as soon as they are released. That is no longer true, and it will get worse.
ICOs are now very closely being scrutinized by government agencies. Many of these ICOs are considered as securities, since there is no inherent value in the tokens and they are sold with a "promise" of future value when the product or service eventually gets launched.
If the ICO does not get "hit" by the government today, it may in the future, indirectly. The US SEC has stated that it will run after exchanges that are trading tokens considered as securities (aka, anything not a currency). Most certainly, this will cause the price of the token to dive.
Investors already have ICO fatigue. Because of the recent market downturn, ICOs that launched recently have not given good returns - in fact some of them are trading below their ICO prices. Investor money is stuck in their recent ICO purchases and do not / cannot invest in new ICOs.
Many of the ICOs coming up are "me too" plays - I cannot see any new ground-breaking projects that have yet to launch. And, the interesting ones have turned to other means to fund-raise to avoid government regulators: airdrops, private token sales, traditional VC funding.
ICOs are having an extremely difficult time to get their tokens listed in the top exchanges. They have to pay millions, and wait more than just a few weeks to get listed. Without exchange listing, the tokens have no chance to go up in value for the investors.
Do you still think its worth investing in ICOs today? Are returns more than 2x to 4x ICO price still possible?