ICO/IDO market collapses 85% QoQ — worst quarter in 5 years!

Public crypto fundraising hit a five-year low in Q2 2026, with only $58 million raised across IEOs, ICOs, and IDOs — an 85% collapse from Q1 2026 and the weakest quarter since the market's early recovery phase. The number of individual sales fell from 105 in Q1 to just 37, a 65% drop that signals the demand side, not just deal size, is evaporating.

Why it matters

The most alarming data point isn't the quarterly aggregate — it's May's monthly figure of just 13 token sales, the lowest single-month count since December 2020 when only 4 sales were recorded. That comparison lands hard: December 2020 was the dead zone before the 2021 bull market ignited retail appetite for public token sales. The fact that May 2026 nearly matches that trough — in a cycle that was supposed to be structurally more mature — suggests the public fundraising model itself is under pressure, not just sentiment.

Market impact

The peak context makes the decline starker: Q1 2025 saw nearly $849 million raised across 429 sales. The market has shed roughly 93% of its peak fundraising volume in just five quarters. For projects relying on public rounds for price discovery and community bootstrapping, the window is effectively closed. Investors should watch whether Q3 2026 shows any reversal — a sustained trough at these levels would likely accelerate the shift toward private rounds and institutional pre-sales, further concentrating early token allocation away from retail.

Source: [source](http://telegraph.controller.bot/files/8336652911/AgACAgIAAxkBAAI5MGopMNcSPKV9-DfZqWW4zkbcXeDHAAKTHGsbslJJSSjmYWfi6c-7AQADAgADeQADOwQ)