By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Block.one will launch the sale of a new blockchain-based digital currency or token called EOS on Monday, the tech company said on Thursday.
The sale is the latest capital-raising exercise by a technology startup creating its own digital currency and selling tokens to the public, a practice that has no regulatory oversight.
It will be one of the most eagerly expected token sales in recent months, analysts said.
Blockchain, a distributed ledger that came to prominence as the underlying technology behind digital currency bitcoin, is gaining popularity for its potential to track assets across all industries.
U.S. startup Civic sold $33 million in digital currency tokens for its identity verification project in a public sale, Reuters reported on Thursday.
Block.one calls the sale of EOS a "token distribution." The company wants EOS to be used by large businesses, enabling corporations to automate processes, monitor assets, and create multiple applications.
Brock Pierce, co-founder of block.one, told Reuters that EOS aims to be the foundation for business applications in the blockchain world.
The token sale will take place over a one-year period on ethereum, another blockchain-based currency, and some 1 billion tokens would be sold over 341 days starting on June 26, Pierce said.
According to block.one's distribution schedule, 20 percent of the EOS tokens will be sold during the first five days of the book opening, while 70 percent will split evenly into 350 consecutive 23-hour periods of 2 million EOS tokens each, starting on July 1. The remaining 10 percent will be reserved for block.one and cannot be traded or transferred on the ethereum network.
EOS will be priced based on market demand, said Brendan Blumer, chief executive of block.one in a statement.
The last blockchain platform token that went on sale was Qtum in March, which raised $15.6 million.
Blockchain Capital's Pierce said EOS could raise more than the $150 million raised by Bancor a few weeks ago. Bancor so far has raised the largest amount of capital in a token sale.
Bancor enables the creation of so-called "smart tokens," which can hold one or more tokens or digital currencies in reserve.
"The goal of the EOS token sale is to make it truly democratized and provide equal access to everyone," said Pierce.