As of the end of September of this year, Isreali blockchain startups have raised more than $600 million through initial coin offerings (ICOs). This is according to a report from an analytics company named Alpha One. Alpha One reports that there are 140 companies in Israel that are focused on blockchain technology, and that these companies have raised a total of $1.3 billion in funding. It also reported that in excess of 60% of these companies have received funding through ICOs, and nearly 90% of their funding came from ICOs. Most of the funding came in the first half of the year, with the first quarter being the best. More than $300 million was raised during this period. Last year, there were not even 20 ICOs in Israel, though these companies raised nearly $600 million. Globally, in 2017 there were about 350 ICOs. But during the first 9 months of this year there have already been in excess of 800 of them. Worldwide funding through ICOs has risen from $6 billion last year to $20 billion this year. So far, the biggest ICOs this year have been EOS (at $4.2 billion), Telegram (at $1.7 billion), TaTaTu (at $575 million), Dragon (at $420 million) and tZero (at $328 million). Still, ICOs represent not even 10% of worldwide venture capital funding for this year. 2018 has also been a good year for cryptocurrency funds. While more than 190 of them were formed last year, another 136 began operating this year. Interestingly, Yaniv Feldman — who is Alpha's One's CEO — said that the bear market in cryptocurrencies this year has actually helped the ICO market. He said that this is because the fall drove valuations down to what he calls a "sensible level." He went to say that the bust that occurred last December and January flushed speculators out of the market and left the real investors and visionaries. He believes that this will lead to a successful ecosystem. Dubbed "Startup Nation," Israel has a large number of technology startups. Last year alone they raised more than $5 billion in funding.