Internet Capital Market ICM: Emerging Trend or Another Round of Speculation?

Summary

The Internet Capital Market ( ICM ), as a native cryptocurrency alternative to traditional financing models, allows entrepreneurs to raise funds directly from the online community through tokenization, bypassing the cumbersome venture capital and IPO processes. Platforms like Believe App have pioneered this transformation on the Solana blockchain, enabling users to easily issue and invest in projects simply by @ mentioning the platform's account on social media.

Despite issues such as regulatory gaps and low entry barriers, ICM still has strong potential for mass adoption, especially in promoting Web3 to Web2 users through a simplified user experience and fiat payment gateways. However, to achieve long-term development, the ICM platform needs to establish a founder accountability mechanism, optimize the token economic model, build DAO governance, and realize genuine utility, thereby transforming from short-term speculation to a new paradigm of capital formation.

Pain Points of Traditional Capital Markets

Traditional Capital Market financing methods face numerous challenges:

• Entrepreneurs face lengthy application processes and complex legal procedures, making it difficult to focus on product development and community building.
• Early investment opportunities are monopolized by large institutions, and ordinary investors can hardly participate.
• Inefficient, lacking openness, and a serious misalignment of incentives between creators and supporters.

These structural issues reflect the market's urgent demand for more open, direct, and highly participatory financing methods.

ICM Ecosystem Status

The ICM concept is highly compatible with the vision of the "Internet Native Nasdaq" proposed by the Solana Foundation. Currently, the leading project in the ecosystem is the Believe App on the Solana chain, which allows founders to issue tokens by simply mentioning the platform account on social media.

The development of Believe has transitioned from personal tokens ($Pasternak) to project tokens ($launchcoin). Multiple projects such as $GOON and $NOODLE have successfully issued on the platform and achieved high market values, pushing the overall market value of the platform to reach 314 million dollars at one point.

Success Factors of Believe

Compared to the competing product Clanker, Believe has advantages in several aspects:

1. Ecological Impact: The transaction volume and activity of the Solana chain far exceed those of the Base chain, providing greater expansion momentum for Believe.

2. User Experience:

   • The issuance process is simplified, requiring only the token abbreviation and @platform account.
   • The interface is intuitive and simple, providing mobile app and credit card payment options.
   • Token issuance and purchase can be completed without Web3 knowledge.

3. Narrative and Vision:

   • Emphasize support for the development of real projects, rather than pure speculation.
   • A higher-level vision easily resonates and attracts users who seek long-term value.

Challenges Faced by ICM

Although the concept is attractive, ICM has trade-offs between efficiency and security.

1. Founder Responsibility Deficiency:

   • No commitment to deliver or assume legal obligations
   • Lack of保障机制 to ensure目标兑现

2. Disconnection between tokens and projects:

   • Token design is more like digital collectibles, not representing equity or earnings.
   • Investors may misunderstand the nature of participation

3. Narrative is abused:

   • Some high market cap tokens are essentially meme coins.
   • The narrative of "supporting projects" is used to package hype that lacks constructive significance.

Future Development Direction of ICM

To avoid becoming a short-term speculation, the ICM platform needs to:

1. Optimize the economic model and set up a penalty mechanism to incentivize founders to continue updating.
2. Establishing a DAO mechanism to enhance transparency and accountability
3. Build deeper practical value:
   • Promote meaningful community governance
   • Establish a system of continuous responsibility for founders
   • Integrated Real-world Application Scenarios Project

ICM needs to transform from a pure token launch platform into an innovative platform that stimulates creativity, drives projects, connects the public, and supports the popularization of Web3 in order to achieve long-term growth and create a lasting impact.