Recently, many people have been asking me what significant projects can be participated in after Huma? In fact, besides CMC/CEEX mining, I am also looking for some new promising projects. Over the past few days, I have seen several experts post about ICN @ICN_Protocol, and I suddenly feel a bit excited.
Those who know me well should be aware that besides following the big names to earn tokens, I prefer investing in early-stage projects in the primary market, with my first and most successful investment being Aethir/ATH, so I am quite familiar with the DePIN track. ICN is currently the project that I find quite interesting in this field.
Here are a few highlights of ICN that impressed me:
1. Track Advantage:
DePIN is currently one of the important tracks that may bring more incremental traffic and funds into Crypto! ICN should be one of the few projects that have the opportunity to emerge.
2. Backed by Big Capital and Major Projects:
NGP @ngpcapital invested in ICN last month at a valuation of $470 million, and behind it is Xiaomi, which is the Xiaomi we are familiar with, run by Lei Jun.
3. Self-Sustaining and Profitability
From the official disclosed data, it can be seen that ICN currently has good profitability in aspects such as node sales and collaborations with B-end clients.
Next, I will elaborate on my understanding of these three points.
1. ICN's Position in DePIN and Future Imagination
There are various opinions about DePIN; those who like it are obsessed, while those who dislike it criticize it daily. However, from a narrative perspective and the current successful projects, this track is valid! At least it allows traditional internet hardware, software, and even cloud, which are unrelated to ordinary users, to bring direct benefits to ordinary users, aside from the project parties and hardware providers, in the Crypto/Web3 space, making it one of the quality tracks.
Turning everyone's mobile phones, computers, and even sockets into shareable hardware, and obtaining corresponding profit distribution based on sharing, is an attractive idea for most people.
I remember when I chose to invest in Aethir, it was based on this logic, along with its outstanding performance in node sales.
The trend of ICN itself in this track is actually very attractive. It integrates the highlights of several previous projects while directly associating and focusing on storage, computing, and networking, basically belonging to a big platform mentality. According to the official disclosed data, the progress is relatively smooth.
2. Good Investment Background Equals a Good Parent!
Public information shows that NGP Capital strategically invested in ICN at a valuation of $470 million, and there have been many discussions about whether Xiaomi actually invested in ICN. In fact, the answer can be easily found in public information.
Funding Information:
https://t.co/kvdugDGeO1
NGP Capital (Nokia Growth Partners) is one of Xiaomi's core investors in its Series A funding, having previously led Xiaomi's early capitalization path, and now continues to bet on technological paradigm shifts as an industrial fund. In 2025, NGP Capital strategically invested in ICN at a valuation of $470 million, becoming its important institutional supporter.
This action marks the first heavy investment by traditional tech giant-related capital in Web3 full-stack cloud infrastructure, highlighting the recognition of ICN's positioning as a "decentralized AWS."
From this, we also see the investment logic and industry significance of NGP's investment in ICN.
3. Self-Sustaining Ability Can Keep You Alive!
Crypto is no longer a blue ocean; traffic and funds are drying up, and the incremental market hasn't entered, but has instead been drained due to Trump’s policies, with recent claims of the US stock market also draining resources.
So, in this severe situation, surviving has always been the most critical consideration, and only then can one consider thriving!
The reason I have always been optimistic about CX Godbird Huma (and still am!) is because it has a stable cash flow!
ICN's public data in this aspect still performs well; we can look at the current public data in this regard:
ICN has provided services to multiple data centers in Europe, serving over 1,000 enterprise clients, with annual revenues exceeding $5 million. Additionally, cumulative node sales revenue has surpassed $12 million, showing stable cash flow. On the application side, the platform processes 20 to 50 million files daily, with real-time decentralized storage capacity reaching 50PB and reserve orders as high as 250PB. This data reflects ICN's dual success in commercial implementation and market demand, laying the foundation for its profitability.
Having said all this, how can we participate next? This is also the question everyone is most concerned about. In this regard, I think it's best to refer to the previous posts written by expert @wenxue600, which mainly include node participation, completing galaxy tasks, contributing as DC community roles, etc. I feel this is basic operation for many token earners!
https://t.co/NB745fwNXN
Of course, I don't rule out the possibility of earning by word of mouth, so those interacting with ICN can try to narrate and output from different angles; perhaps there will be rewards, because based on past experiences with word-of-mouth earnings, @KaitoAI also tends to retrospectively capture relevant data. Maybe once ICN makes it to the list, you could be one of the top players!
