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

The Internet Capital Market ( ICM ) is a crypto-native alternative to traditional capital markets, allowing entrepreneurs to raise funds directly from online communities through tokenization, bypassing cumbersome procedures like venture capital and IPOs. Platforms represented by Believe App are leading this transformation on the Solana chain, where users can easily launch projects and invest by simply @ing the platform on social media.

Despite numerous criticisms, such as lack of regulation and low project thresholds, ICM still has strong potential for mass adoption, especially in promoting Web3 to ordinary users through a simple user experience, fiat payment gateways, and viral marketing. For long-term development, platforms like Believe need to move beyond short-term speculation, promote founder accountability mechanisms, optimize token economic models, establish DAO governance, and achieve real utility, thereby transforming ICM from a trend into a new paradigm of Capital Market formation.

Traditional Capital Market Background

In traditional Capital Markets, entrepreneurs often rely on expensive and time-consuming financing methods, such as IPOs or venture capital. This path presents several challenges:

From the perspective of the financing party, entrepreneurs need to deal with lengthy application processes, complex legal procedures, and constantly cater to investor preferences, making it difficult to focus on product research and development or community building.

From the perspective of investors, early investment opportunities are basically monopolized by large institutions, and ordinary investors can hardly get a share, often having to wait until the project valuation skyrockets before being able to enter the market.

This model is not only inefficient and lacks openness, but also leads to a serious misalignment of incentives between creators and supporters. These structural issues reflect the urgent demand in the market for a more open, direct, and participatory financing method, which is the core problem that ICM aims to address.

Direct listing is a more cost-effective way to raise funds, skipping the expensive and time-consuming intermediary processes of traditional financing, providing entrepreneurs with new options. ICM is similar to direct listing in many ways, but theoretically has more advantages, as entrepreneurs raise funds directly through blockchain.

ICM Concept

ICM is a new narrative method in the cryptocurrency industry. It allows entrepreneurs to raise funds for their products directly through the internet, without having to go through the cumbersome processes of the traditional capital market. By simply tokenizing their ideas, they can immediately gain support from investors.

Unlike traditional markets, where investors' shares are usually held in custody by banks or brokers, in the ICM model, investors directly hold their funds through self-custody wallets (token asset), fully mastering the ownership and liquidity of the assets. This method not only significantly lowers the threshold for ordinary people to participate in investments but also allows project parties to obtain startup capital more efficiently.

ICM Ecosystem Status

It is worth noting that the concept of ICM is not just an experimental attempt at product narrative; it is highly aligned with Solana's own strategic direction. According to a market memorandum released by the Solana Foundation, the foundation has proposed the vision of building an "internet-native Nasdaq"—anyone with a wallet and internet connection can participate in the Capital Market.

This memorandum depicts a future scenario where financial assets such as stocks, real estate, and cultural tokens can be freely accessed and traded by anyone at any time through a globally shared blockchain ledger, thereby eliminating many of the barriers and restrictions present in traditional finance.

Currently, the leader of the ICM ecosystem is the Believe App on Solana. This platform allows founders to directly publish their tokens by @ing an account on social media. It attempts to disrupt the traditional venture capital model, providing a decentralized, community-driven alternative that empowers creators and entrepreneurs.

It all started with Web2 entrepreneur Ben Pasternak. He launched his token $Pasternak through the Clout platform, which at one point had a market cap of about $77 million, but the project ultimately collapsed due to technical issues.

Subsequently, the platform was officially renamed from Clout to Believe, shifting its core focus from "individuals" to "creativity and projects," truly moving towards the ICM direction. $Pasternak was gradually phased out, and the platform also launched a new core token $launchcoin. The platform's development quickly gained attention after being shared by well-known founders. Subsequently, the tokens of several projects achieved success on Believe and realized a high market value, and this viral spread and user growth once pushed the overall market value of the platform to 314 million dollars.

Comparison between Clanker and Believe: Why Believe is More Successful

Clanker is another token issuance platform that also allows users to create their own tokens through social media interactions, mainly by tweeting or using Farcaster. Although Clanker and Believe seem similar in terms of "issuance methods," Believe has several distinct advantages in user experience, narrative structure, and growth potential, making it stand out among various platforms.

Ecological Impact

Data shows that both in terms of trading volume and the number of active traders, the Solana chain far exceeds the Base chain, providing greater momentum for Believe's expansion. Additionally, support from Alliance DAO and endorsements from well-known figures have further accelerated its growth.

User Experience

Issuing on Believe is much simpler - users just need to fill in a token abbreviation and @Believe on social media; whereas on Clanker, additional information is required, such as name, icon, etc.

In addition, Believe's user interface is more intuitive and streamlined. They have also developed a mobile application, which is now available on the App Store, allowing users to purchase token assets directly through their wallets or credit cards. In contrast, Clanker currently only has a web version and can only be purchased using a wallet, similar to traditional Web3 launch platforms.

Although Clanker simplifies the "selling" process in token issuance, users still need a certain level of Web3 knowledge when purchasing, such as how to connect a wallet and how to add on the Base blockchain.

Believe is completely different; it allows users to issue and purchase tokens without any Web3 knowledge. You can issue tokens directly through social platforms and make purchases using credit cards or mobile payments. This significantly lowers the participation threshold, attracting a large number of Web2 users into the Web3 world.

For example, Web2 entrepreneur Alex Leiman( developed the Web3 game noodle.gg) similar to slither.io and chose to issue his new token $noodle on Believe.

Narrative and Vision: The Difference Between ICM and Meme Platforms

Believe is one of the earliest projects to propose the narrative of "Internet Capital Market ( ICM )". It emphasizes the issuance of real ideas and projects to support their development, rather than just speculating on memes with no actual value. This higher-level vision resonates more easily with the community, attracting users who wish to engage in meaningful construction and pursue long-term value.

In contrast, Clanker is more like a meme issuance platform focused on short-term speculation and trading. It lacks a clear narrative direction and does not have a long-term development vision, which limits its appeal to "short-term players" and makes it difficult to establish lasting user stickiness and ecosystem building capability.

Why ICM Might Just Be Another Wave of Meme Speculation

The理念 behind ICM is indeed very appealing. However, there is always a trade-off between efficiency and security. When you save time and lower barriers, you inevitably sacrifice some protection mechanisms.

The founder is not required to assume any responsibility.

Unlike traditional capital markets, traditional projects usually need to undergo strict roadshows, due diligence, and regulatory approvals before conducting an IPO. In ICM, founders only need to @Believe on official social platforms to easily launch their own token.

But the problem is that the founders have no delivery commitments or legal obligations, nor are there any safeguards to ensure they fulfill their original goals. This lack of accountability is concerning, especially when there have even been instances in reality where some "presidential-level" accounts have retweeted a token's contract address, only to later delete the post or distance themselves by claiming "the account was hacked." This also reveals the significant risks of the ICM model in an open but unregulated state.

According to the official guidelines of LaunchCoin, in order to avoid the token itself being classified as a security or investment product, the platform has established very strict legal compliance requirements. For example: tokens must not represent equity, nor can they imply any form of profit return. Their original design intent should be more like digital memorabilia, allowing supporters to express their support for the project, rather than a security that can generate income, dividends, or profit sharing.

This also reveals a key issue: there is a huge disconnect between the token itself and the underlying project. According to the guidelines, the token is essentially very similar to a meme coin - it has no real use, and its existence is more of a symbol of "supporting a certain founder."

Although this method can indeed help project parties raise funds and promote project progress, many investors may mistakenly believe they are participating in a high-quality early investment opportunity. Many consider themselves to be playing the role of angel investors, helping struggling entrepreneurs, however, the reality is: these tokens do not promise any returns and do not have any保障机制.

abused narrative

From the current market data, ICM's initial vision was to support the founders and their projects, but it is now being clearly abused. Among the top three project tokens by market capitalization on the platform, two are essentially meme coins.

ICM was originally intended to empower truly creative builders, but the current situation is quite ironic: many people are merely using the narrative of "supporting projects" as a facade, while in reality, they are still creating waves of meme trends. These tokens, which have no constructive significance, are receiving more attention and fame than the projects that genuinely need financial support.

What is the next step for ICM

Currently, issuing tokens on Believe is cost-free for founders, but its market performance highly depends on the continuous advancement of the project itself. To motivate founders to continuously update the project and maintain community interest in it, Believe should consider optimizing the existing economic model.

For example, a penalty mechanism can be set up through smart contracts: if the founders do not update the project for a long time or are in a "lost contact" state, they will not be able to receive transaction fee earnings. This