History of Crowdfunding in the Context of Ever-Changing Modern Financial Markets

The history of financial markets and finance are united by continuous fluctuations between economic cycles usually caused by structures that enable opportunism and moral hazards. Every crisis contains the seeds of change and innovation, but also risks for regulative overreactions. Crowdfunding as a form of financing is part of this series of innovations in the history of the financial markets. Understanding of the historical changes of both the financial market and the financial system as a whole helps to put new financial innovations, such as crowdfunding and, more broadly, fintech into perspective. The evolution of financial markets or corporate finance naturally will not end in crowdfunding. This chapter gives an overview of history of crowdfunding as part of the ever-changing modern financial markets and contextualizes it as a new, innovative, and modern form of financing in the financial markets.