Bet vs. Buy? The ICO Market Has a Serious East-West Divide

So the Asian market took off on its own, informed by the ecosystems around bitcoin and ethereum but also distinct from them, such as when major Asian banks launched distinct efforts starting in early 2016.

If one common theme ran through our conversations about Asia, it was this: retail and institutional investors all want returns to realize much more quickly than investors do in the U.S., which may help explain why it has always had a vigorous ecosystem of exchanges.

Investors in Asia move fast into getting coins listed and sell them as they go up, because they know there is going to be an uptick after listing as market makers enter new tokens, but his firm avoids exiting to fiat.

"U.S. and Europe ICO project teams are more well invested in terms of financial knowledge," Li told CoinDesk.

Entrepreneurs also illuminated other facets of the East-West divide in crypto, such as why Asian projects mirror Western protocols and the China ICO ban.

Language helps to explain another point of relativity in the crypto space: the fact that the market has copied existing protocols from the U.S. market that could theoretically work everywhere.

Abhishek Pitti, founder of Nucleus Vision, a $40 million ICO out of India that's making what he called the "Neo of India" explained that it localized for a more structural reason.

"In China, it's slightly more balanced. More companies are looking from a business point of view."

Fang summed up the West more succinctly: "I think right now people are betting on professors."

Still, there's even more liquidity in the U.S., so more firms seem to be expanding here first.