2020: DeFi → 2021: NFTs → 2024: AI Agents →
2025: Welcome to Internet Capital Markets (ICM).
ICM is coming in hot, outpacing everything else with mind-blowing growth. It already stole the spotlight from the $SOL ecosystem and is now going after the entire crypto market.
ICM’s narrative performance over the past 7 days: +2336%. For comparison, other sectors maxed out at around ~48%.
So what is ICM, and how do you ride this wave?
1️⃣ Rewind: How We Got Here – The Traditional Market Mess
Back in the 1960s, the US stock market was chaos. People were trading paper stock certificates faster than they could be processed.
In 1968, shipping losses hit $4 billion, causing the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to close 1 day/week.
Firms like Dempsey-Tegeler, a brokerage firm, went bankrupt – shipping debts were 2x their assets.
From 1969–1970, the market lost $400M.
To fix this:
Congress passed the SIPA Act (1970) → Created Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) to protect investors.
By 1975, the Depository Trust Company (DTC) centralized paper certificates digitally.
But while that solved the paperwork mess, it created a spaghetti of middlemen - brokers, clearinghouses, exchanges - all taking a cut.
2️⃣ What is The Traditional Stock Market Like Now?
Buying a stock? Here’s what happens:
You place an order through a broker.
Broker sends it to an exchange like NYSE/Nasdaq, or to a market maker.
DTCC clears the trade.
Ownership updates electronically — but only T+1 (1 business day later).
Every step involves fees, commissions, delays, and middlemen. Even worse, retail investors have no direct access - everything funnels through a broker.
And if DTCC has an issue? The entire market could freeze.
3️⃣ Enter ICM – The Internet Capital Markets Era
Now imagine a system where:
Anyone can raise capital.
No banks. No paperwork. No VC gatekeepers.
Just launch an idea → get a token → get funding.
This is a completely new way of playing, like a wide open financial market, anyone can jump in, no need to be rich or have connections. No IPO. No intermediaries. Just you and the internet.
From what I see, this model is basically similar to how Ethereum launched with ICOs, but now it has a new name and a different way of doing the Token Generation Event (TGE) — a new narrative.
People naturally love stories, especially new ones. That’s why ICM is gaining attention and creating waves in the Solana ecosystem.
Some are calling ICM the next-gen SocialFi, where memes, products, AI, and tokenomics collide 😂
In January 2025, founder Ben Pasternak launched Believe / LaunchCoin: just tweet “$TICKER + @launchcoin + Project Name,” and a bot will instantly deploy the contract on Solana, set up the liquidity curve, and send you the buy/sell link.
The token creator automatically receives 50% of the transaction fees — enough to kickstart the project if the community supports it. This seemingly “crazy” formula quickly spread: every idea, every story, even every joke can be “tokenized”.
And ICM officially became a hot keyword, even mentioned on Solana’s official X page.
⚠️ But because anyone can create tokens, there are many token scams with fake projects.
🔥 Quick Recap of BelieveApp - Top #1 Project in Narratives ICM
Token Mechanism:
Starts with bonding curve and anti-sniping fee
Once a token hits $100K market cap, it “graduates” to Meteora DEX
Creators get 50% of transaction fees – incentivizing content, creativity, community
Believe’s goal: Democratize venture capital, onboard Web2 users & developers into Web3. But keep in mind: SEC regulations and meme-level volatility are real risks.
