TL;DR

ICM is a new Decentralized Fundraising model on Solana, allowing anyone to turn a tweet into a token and raise funds instantly. Based on automated smart contract mechanisms and social media propagation, ICM turns ‘attention into capital’ in an unprecedented way. Although it is easily labeled as a disguised memecoin with many risks, ICM opens up a more democratic capital access, especially for early-stage ideas. If just a small portion of tokens here become real products, ICM could very well become the foundation for a ‘spontaneous Nasdaq’ in the Web3 era.

Is ICM opening a new era of Decentralized Fundraising on Solana?

The Internet Capital Market (ICM) is a new Decentralized Fundraising model on the Solana network, seen as a ‘decentralized capital market’ where anyone can turn ideas into tokens and call for funding from the community. Instead of the traditional fundraising processes (VC, IPO) which are complicated, ICM leverages social media (especially X/Twitter) and blockchain to connect projects directly with individual investors. For instance, with just a tweet ‘$TICKER @launchcoin + project description’, the LaunchCoin/Believe system on Solana can automatically launch a smart contract, mint tokens with a fixed supply, link liquidity curve, and return the transaction link. The token creator by default receives 50% of the initial transaction fees – a mechanism that encourages builders to continue developing the product if the community supports them. Thanks to the speed (tens of thousands of transactions/second), ultra-low fees (below 0.0001 USD), and the meme-friendly culture of Solana, the opportunity cost of experimenting with ideas is nearly zero. The entire process turns ‘tweet → token’ into ‘attention → capital’ in an instant. As noted in the Allinstation article, ICM emerges in early 2025 as a modern version of the 2017 ICO era – instead of spending dozens of pages on a whitepaper, now it only takes an engaging story on Twitter to raise funds.

Objective: ICM aims for capital democratization in the digital age: opening fundraising opportunities for everyone, from independent programmers to small startups, without relying on investment funds or stock exchanges. The transparent on-chain mechanism allows operation 24/7, without geographical limitations. Some analysts view ICM as a ‘lifeline’ for altcoins seeking new narratives, and as the next step in the tokenization of ideas on the internet.

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Operating model: On LaunchCoin (the ICM fundraising app), anyone can create a token with just a tweet. For example, tweeting "$AURA – an AI photo editing app ✨ @launchcoin" within 1 minute generates the token $AURA with a fixed supply; the initial transaction fee is locked high to prevent bots, then gradually decreases. When the token's market cap exceeds ~100,000 USD, the system automatically pumps additional liquidity into deep pools on DEX (Meteora, Raydium). All buy-sell transactions within 24 hours will split the 50% fee evenly between the token creator and 50% for the protocol. Thus, “tweet → token → instant liquidity” has solved the fundraising barrier, turning likes/retweets into capital for product development.

The Believe Screener interface of LaunchCoin (16/05/2025) shows that the total accumulated trading volume has reached ~2.1 billion USD and over 15,783 thousand tokens launched on the platform. The token LAUNCH (the symbol of ICM) has a market cap of approximately 211 million USD at the time of the survey.

From FOMO to funding: How is ICM different from traditional memecoins?

Similarities: Both ICM and memecoins arise from meme culture and FOMO psychology. The extremely rapid token creation pace 24/7, near-zero testing costs, and social media propagation mechanisms make both susceptible to strong volatility and short ‘pump → dump’ cycles. Many initial ICM tokens lack clear intrinsic value, primarily relying on propagation stories, characteristic of traditional memecoins. As a result, most new tokens survive only a few days, with prices being inflated then plummeting right after. Analysts even argue that ICM is ‘just an upgraded version of meme coin’, with the same nature of being prone to depreciation and lacking fundamentals.

Difference: The core point of ICM is storytelling and linking the story with real products. Instead of just creating tokens for fun or short-term virality like on other ‘meme launchpads’, ICM encourages turning potential ideas/applications into representative tokens with a clear development roadmap. On ICM, you don’t need a complete product to raise funds: just a feasible idea to issue a token, and the community buys tokens like ‘buying shares’ of the project. The tokenomics mechanism is also systematically designed: for instance, the token creator by default receives 50% of the transaction fees, creating a financial motivation for them to stay committed and develop the product. Solana’s technology also gives ICM a unique advantage: fast processing capability (transactions measured in seconds) and near-zero fees allow for mechanisms like automatically supplementing liquidity when tokens reach maturity thresholds. As TheBlock101 has commented, ICM is aiming for a new decentralized capital market – where every idea can be tested, the community invests early, and only projects with truly compelling stories can ‘take off’ thanks to this fee and liquidity cycle.

Breakthrough or a memecoin in disguise?

Despite its many new features, ICM is still regarded by the community as a ‘disguised memecoin’ for the following reasons: First, most current ICM tokens lack real utilities and survive on crowd mentality. For instance, Allinstation reports that most tokens achieve market caps of several million USD within a few hours thanks to ‘eye-catching ideas’ but die shortly after; FOMO becomes the main driver, while the real value of the product is indefinitely postponed. The ability for users to create any memecoin with just a tweet also floods the market with junk projects (“serial rug pulls”), just like the mass memecoin creation phase on Solana in 2023. Comments on X/Twitter include remarks like “Internet capital markets are just a fancy way to say meme coin. The same junk” or questioning “What prevents devs from making money via Pump.fun without needing LaunchCoin?”. Some experts emphasize that ICM is easily blamed for the ‘FOMO culture’ and speculative models similar to memecoins: TheBlock101 warns that ICM also has ‘high speculative characteristics’ and ‘lack of transparency’ like memecoins, being volatile and at risk of rug pulls if one mistakenly invests in junk projects.

The uniqueness of ICM

Although framed in a meme context, ICM has distinct strategic and philosophical characteristics compared to pure memecoins:

Democratization of Capital: ICM is built on the idea that anyone, at any time, can raise funds from the global community. This is not just a joke but a way to harness the power of the Internet to turn ‘attention into capital’. According to Luthra (BeinCrypto), “the point of ICM is not guaranteed profits, but the ability to access early-stage internet projects” – allowing retail investors to become the earliest shareholders of a product.

Clear economic mechanism: Unlike most memecoins created by anonymous authors who then vanish, ICM has established rules for sharing benefits: the token creator receives 50% of the initial transaction fees, with the other half going to the platform. Furthermore, when the token reaches a market cap, the smart contract automatically unlocks deep liquidity on AMMs to increase liquidity. Experts describe this as a positive ‘flywheel’: token price rises → trading volume increases → founders earn more fees → motivation to develop the product → community gets more curious → price rises again. In summary, investing in ICM is investing in potential ideas/products, not just the viral factor of the meme as some analysts emphasize.

Potential for integrating new technologies: ICM links blockchain with social media and even AI: there are ICM projects like BUDDY (AI tweet assistant), FITCOIN (reward points in digital marketing) aimed at practical applications. The Solana Foundation also views ICM as part of a ‘24/7 global financial market’ that they aim for. Multicoin noted that Solana can reduce gas fees for users by up to 90-99% while capturing a much larger market compared to traditional financial institutions. In other words, ICM embodies the vision of a capital market that doesn’t require permission – meaning any asset or idea can be tokenized and traded online. Allinstation even suggests that ICM could pave the way for RWA tokenization (bonds, music copyrights, film revenue, etc.) in the future, as long as the legal framework and on-chain credit scoring develop sufficiently.

Experienced team: Unlike memecoins typically created by strangers, ICM attracts people with product development history. Expert Malviya (DYOR) emphasizes the difference in builder reliability: “In memes, anyone can be a dev and create a token – while in ICM, you have builders with a track record of launching real applications; you are speculating on the application, not the meme culture.” This leads some investors to see ICM as a “memecoin with a reason” – meaning that although it is meme-like, it comes with a clear economic model and developmental goals rather than just for fun.


The Future of ICM

For investors, ICM can be a short-term wave of high excitement or a real turning point depending on the ability to transform hype into real value. In the optimistic scenario, if over 10% of ICM tokens are realized into products generating real cash flow, this trend could become an ‘open Nasdaq’ for the Web3 community, creatively raising funds in a new style. Solana, with its high performance and low fees, is ready to be the ideal platform for deploying such a global capital market 24/7. Conversely, if most projects are just jokes and quickly fade away, ICM will ‘bloom early and wither quickly’ like previous crypto trends (pump.fun, ICO bubble), leaving lessons for investors.

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Analysts have warned that ICM may only have a few weeks of ‘hotness’: Hitesh Malviya estimates this cycle will last only 4–6 weeks. Additionally, ICM faces legal risks as many tokens may be considered securities if tied to promises of real benefits. However, if the community builds a confident on-chain mechanism and cooperates with regulators, ICM could exist sustainably beyond a fleeting craze.

ICM reminds me of a “Web3 flea market”, where every idea, whether serious or spontaneous, can raise funds with just a tweet. It's dangerous due to the potential for generating junk, but also interesting because it completely democratizes the fundraising process: no funds needed, no whitepaper required, just community attention.

From a positive perspective, ICM is not just a meme coin – but the first experiment for a funding model based on attention. In an era where interaction can be transformed into capital, tokenizing a ‘viral and crazy’ idea is an opportunity for small projects to gain their first push.

I don’t believe all tokens from ICM will survive. But if only 5-10% of them produce real products, then ICM deserves to be seen as a ‘spontaneous Nasdaq’ of Web3, chaotic yet impossible to ignore.

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