(Yicai Global) Aug. 29 -- Initial coin offerings have begun to gain traction recently and regulators are looking to ramp up supervision after some cryptocurrencies grew as much as 300 times in just a year once opening up to the public.

"Since April this year, our team has been introducing our venture project to blockchain summits around China in Hangzhou, Guiyang and Beijing," a head at a blockchain venture company said. "Each meeting has only two or three participants, which was unheard of few years ago. I remember a blockchain summit in 2013 being attended by more than 50 people."

Most coin offering projects in China were initially set up through platforms on BTC9, ICO365 and ICOAGE. Since April, similar platforms have sprung up and there are now more than 50.

"Our ICO was sent to six major platforms in China," the above source said. "On July 20, we raised BTC3000 (Bitcoin), worth about CNY50 million (USD7.75 million) at the time. Our currency has currently gone online on two platforms in mainland China and Hong Kong." His company plans to implement the ICO in two months.

The biggest ICO in China to date was for Qtum, which raised BTC11,156.766 and ETH78,081.013 (Ethereum) in 117 hours, boosting investor enthusiasm in initial coin offerings.

"Without supervision, more than 90 percent of ICO projects on the market would be unreliable," an ICO investor told Yicai Global. "The projects are poor quality and get money by covering a project which can't be financed by blockchain."

"The greatest barrier hindering blockchain development is lack of core technical talent," a blockchain entrepreneur said. "ICO projects going into operation in September will be mostly unreliable."

There are currently only about 2,000 engineers in the world that can write a core blockchain code. Every venture needs at least three to five professional engineers, who are mostly hired by major institutions or early blockchain teams. There is no more talented staff available, the entrepreneur added.

Blockchain projects are extremely risky, said Zhu Bo, founder of the Dream Chaser Foundation and Inno Valley. The projects have high technical requirements and industry knowledge, which are hard to come across.