Introducing Internet Capital Markets (ICM): A New Paradigm for Raising Funds

The Internet Capital Market (ICM) is a crypto-native alternative to the Traditional Capital Market (TCM), which allows entrepreneurs to raise funds directly from the online

Author: Mario @IOSG

TL;DR:

The Internet Capital Market (ICM) is a crypto-native alternative to the Traditional Capital Market (TCM), which allows entrepreneurs to raise funds from the online community through tokenization, bypassing cumbersome procedures like venture capital and initial public offerings (IPOs). Platforms like Believe App (formerly Clout) are spearheading this change on the Solana chain, where users can easily issue and invest in projects by simply @ing the platform on X (formerly Twitter).

Despite criticisms regarding lack of regulation, low entry barriers, and the potential for personas to easily release "scam" tokens or projects with no true aim other than to generate hype, ICM still holds strong potential for mass adoption due to Believe's simple user experience, fiat payment gateways, and viral narratives that are attracting a large number of Web2 users.

In order to achieve long-term development, platforms like Believe need to quickly jump out of the short-term hype stage and promote founder accountability mechanisms, optimize token economic models, build DAO governance, and achieve real utility, so as to truly transform ICM from a meme craze to a new capital formation paradigm.

Background of traditional capital markets

In the traditional capital market (TCM), entrepreneurs often rely on expensive and time-consuming financing methods such as initial public offerings (IPOs) or venture capital, which itself presents many challenges.

From the perspective of financing, entrepreneurs need to deal with lengthy application processes, complex legal procedures, and constantly cater to investors' preferences, which often prevents them from focusing on product development or community building.

From the perspective of investors, early investment opportunities are basically monopolized by large institutions, such as hedge funds, mutual funds, etc. Ordinary investors can hardly get a share and often have to wait until the project valuation soars before they can 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 problems reflect the capital market’s urgent need for a more open, direct, and participatory financing method, which is exactly the core problem that the Internet Capital Market (ICM) wants to solve.

Direct listing is a more cost-effective way to raise funds, which skips the expensive and time-consuming intermediary process in the traditional financing process and provides entrepreneurs with a new option. Internet Capital Markets (ICM) is similar to direct listing in many ways, but in theory has more advantages because entrepreneurs raise funds directly through the blockchain.

What is ICM

ICM is a new narrative in the crypto industry. It allows entrepreneurs to raise funds for their products or projects directly through the Internet, without having to go through the cumbersome processes in the traditional capital market. They only need to tokenize their ideas to get immediate support from investors.

Unlike the traditional market, where investors’ shares are usually held in custody by banks or securities firms, in the ICM model, investors directly hold their own funds (token assets) through self-custody wallets, fully controlling the ownership and liquidity of assets. This approach not only significantly lowers the threshold for ordinary people to participate in investment, but also allows project parties to obtain start-up funds more efficiently.

ICM Ecosystem Status

It is worth noting that the concept of ICM is not just an experimental attempt at a product narrative, it is highly consistent with Solana’s own strategic direction. According to a market memorandum issued by the Solana Foundation on November 27, 2024[19], the Foundation proposed the vision of building an “Internet-native version of Nasdaq” - anyone with a wallet and an Internet connection can participate in the capital market.

The memorandum paints a picture of the future: 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, thus eliminating many barriers and restrictions in traditional finance.

The current leader of the ICM ecosystem is Believe App (formerly Clout) on Solana. This platform allows founders to directly issue their own tokens by @ing an account on X (formerly Twitter). It attempts to subvert the traditional venture capital model and provide a decentralized, community-driven alternative that allows creators and entrepreneurs to take the initiative.

It all started with Ben Pasternak, a Web2 entrepreneur and Forbes “30 Under 30”. In January this year, he launched his own token $PASTERNAK through the Clout platform [14]. Its market value once soared to about $77 million, but due to technical problems - even if the conditions were met, the token could not “graduate” - the project eventually collapsed. [15]

In late April, the platform was officially renamed from Clout to Believe, and the core focus shifted from "individuals" to "creativity and projects", truly moving towards the direction of ICM. $PASTERNAK was gradually phased out, and the platform also launched a new core token $LAUNCHCOIN. The development of