Macau (MNA) – Dragon Inc. has managed so far to raise US$310 million (MOP2.49 billion) through a cryptocurrency initial coin offering (ICO), the company’s CEO Chakrit ‘Chris’ Ahmad told Macau News Agency.
The value represents 63 per cent of Dragon Inc’s proposed goal of raising US$500 million, the largest ever ICO if successful.
As previously reported by MNA, Dragon Inc. – a Fintech company based in Hong Kong – launched a Pre-ICO on December 8 with the end date initially set for December 15.
The Dragon Inc CEO previously told MNA that the company had already raised US$265 million in a private auction in November from different shareholders from four junket operators based in Macau.
The company plans to use some US$350 million of the money raised as a deposit to open a Dragon junket, firstly in a government casino in South Korea in January of 2018 and then in the MSAR before Chinese New Year in February 2018.
Owners of the virtual tokens will be able to exchange them for Dragon Global Chips, a digital utility token that will be exchangeable for physical gaming chips in the upcoming Dragon junket and in venues affiliated with the company’s partners.
Some of the money raised will also be used to fund the opening of a floating hotel/casino in Macau named Dragon Pearl by early/mid-2021.
“The impact of the Dragon ICO will be immediate and dramatic, allowing junkets to put the cards back in the hands of the players, so to speak, saving them huge sums of money and creating new choices,” Mr. Ahmad informed.
However, due to extreme congestion on both the Bitcoin and Ethereum cryptocurrencies networks, ICO investors and contributors encountered challenges when transferring their Bitcoin and Ethereum to take part in the Dragon Pre-ICO, Dragon Inc. announced on December 14.
“The pre-ICO started slow because of the network backlog on Ethereum due to crypto kitties and the high fluctuations on BTC but things are really picking up now,” Mr. Ahmad told MNA.
Popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin has suffered considerable fluctuations in the last weeks, reaching a record high of almost US$20,000 on December 17, only to fall to as low as US$10,891 on December 22.
These market conditions are beyond our control, so we decided to extend the period of the Pre-ICO until the end of December to allow the community to take part in the Pre- ICO.“ Chris Ahmad, Dragon’s CEO.
The company also stated that despite the issues, the ICO managed to raise US$1 million in the first weekend alone, with the Pre-ICO now extended until December 31.
The company plans to get a listing on crypto exchanges in January of 2018 and hold a public crowd sale in February.
