VILNIUS, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The Bank of Lithuania announced on Tuesday the Lithuanian projects have raised at least 250 million U.S. dollars through initial coin offerings (ICOs) of cryptocurrencies in the first three months this year.
Vitas Vasiliauskas, chairman of the board of the Bank of Lithuania, said Lithuanians are currently "particularly active" in raising capital through ICOs.
"In the first quarter of this year, Lithuanian registered projects have raised around 250 million U.S. dollars. The total amount of proceeds might be even bigger," Vasiliauskas told the audience in his speech at the Financial Markets Forum in Vilnius.
Globally, more than 4 billion dollars were raised through ICOs during the period, according to Vasiliauskas.
He reiterated the institution's stance regarding ICOs and cryptocurrencies.
"I'm not trying to say that ICO is a sheer evil. The position of the Bank of Lithuania in regards to ICOs is strict. We want to protect financial sector as well as consumers from speculative instruments," said Vasiliauskas.
Last year, the Bank of Lithuania announced its position on ICOs and cryptocurrencies, and warned the country's financial institutions that they "should not participate in activities or provide services associated with virtual currencies".
On Tuesday, Vasiliauskas noted "it's not a secret" that some Lithuanian projects use entities registered in Gibraltar, Switzerland and Virgin Islands to organize ICOs.
ICOs and crypto currencies have grown in popularity in Lithuania, a small Baltic country with a population of less than 3 million.
Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) in Lithuania announced on Tuesday statistics of Lithuanian website domains associated with cryptocurrencies, and said "crypto frenzy in Lithuania continues".
According to KTU, 126 Lithuanian website domains associated with cryptocurrencies have been registered in the first two months of this year, bringing the total number to more than 350.
"In 2017, almost 200 Lithuanian web domains associated with cryptocurrencies were registered, and this year several new domains are registered every day," KTU said.
