Your 79% figure is misleading because counting number of scams unweighted by size is meaningless. To quote your source:
> In relatively direct contrast, looking at our classifications as a percentage of the US dollars raised to-date (~$12B)
we found that only ~$1.3B (~11%) of ICO funding went to Identified Scams,
> Although ~1/10th of all ICO fundraising went to Identified Scams, the vast majority of the $1.3B was from just
three projects, which were all relatively old school frauds by no means unique to ICOs (Pincoin ($660M),
Arisebank ($600M), and Savedroid (~$50M)).
> Outside these three projects, Identified
Scams got away with just $30M in fundraising (or ~0.3% of all time ICO fundraising). We hypothesize this is
because the community is relatively adept at discovering scams and adding them to lists.
11% is still large enough to make your point, and people inclined to agree with you would probably also be inclined to take the 11% figure and not the 0.3% figure, so there was no need to talk about 79%.
At the moment the shiny new thing appears, the 79% figure applies. As time goes on, reality ensues, and it becomes clear which ones are scams. But you don't know that up front. For an investment class marketed by Fear of Missing Out, you have to look at the early odds.
The 11% is the early odds. The investments were made up front when everyone was driven by FOMO, and 11% went to scams. After reality ensues is now, and if everyone were choosing to invest now, the number would be 0%[1], not 11%.
[1] With the caveat that it's possible there are some long cons that haven't yet been exposed yet.
> In relatively direct contrast, looking at our classifications as a percentage of the US dollars raised to-date (~$12B) we found that only ~$1.3B (~11%) of ICO funding went to Identified Scams,
> Although ~1/10th of all ICO fundraising went to Identified Scams, the vast majority of the $1.3B was from just three projects, which were all relatively old school frauds by no means unique to ICOs (Pincoin ($660M), Arisebank ($600M), and Savedroid (~$50M)).
> Outside these three projects, Identified Scams got away with just $30M in fundraising (or ~0.3% of all time ICO fundraising). We hypothesize this is because the community is relatively adept at discovering scams and adding them to lists.
11% is still large enough to make your point, and people inclined to agree with you would probably also be inclined to take the 11% figure and not the 0.3% figure, so there was no need to talk about 79%.