Internet Capital Markets (ICM) is a concept that is drawing significant attention within the Web3 ecosystem, especially in May 2025, as the price performance of this narrative has outpaced nearly all other sectors.

What is Internet Market Capital (ICM)?

Internet Capital Markets (ICM) is a capital market system built entirely on blockchain infrastructure, enabling developers or startups to raise funds directly from the community by issuing tokens that represent future ideas or products.

Unlike traditional fundraising models that rely heavily on venture capital (VC) firms, ICM democratizes the investment process, allowing retail users to participate from the earliest stages.

According to DexU.ai, the price index of tokens under the ICM narrative surged nearly 14% within 24 hours, outperforming categories like CEX, Lending, DeFi, AI, and RWA, signaling a strong influx of capital and attention into this trend.

What makes ICM stand out is its rapid deployment, instant liquidity creation, and high transparency. However, the model also comes with a high degree of speculation, as token valuations are largely driven by expectations and community attention rather than actual product value.

How the ICM Works

The operational process of an Internet Capital Markets project typically includes the following steps:

The process typically begins with a simple post on X, where a developer announces their token using a syntax such as “$TICKER + Name”. This triggers the automatic deployment of a token, initialized through a bonding curve with limited supply and high early transaction fees to bootstrap value and discourage early exit.

From there, the token is live on Solana – the chain of choice for most ICM activity due to its low fees and fast settlement, with initial liquidity seeded via bonding mechanisms. If market participants find the idea compelling, speculative trading begins. The more convincing the narrative or community engagement, the faster the token gains traction.

One of the key milestones is “graduation”, triggered when a token’s market cap reaches $100,000. At this point, liquidity deepens through integrations with Meteora pools, enhancing price discovery and stability. Builders can then claim 50% of all trading fees, with the other half going to Believe. Fee distributions are time-locked to align long-term incentives and prevent premature abandonment.

If the project succeeds in gaining attention, trading volume increases, and the developer receives a portion of the transaction fees as a reward. This provides an incentive to build an actual product, creating a self-reinforcing loop:

Token → community belief → market cap → product development → value creation.

According to Believe.app, over 9,000 tokens have been launched with a combined market cap exceeding $350 million as of mid-May 2025. In some cases, developers have earned over $7 million in trading fees within the first 24 hours of launch.

Top Internet Market Capitals Projects

The main platform behind the current ICM wave is Believe.app, which allows anyone to easily create idea tokens. The platform’s native token, $LAUNCHCOIN, has reached a market capitalization of $192 million, making it a flagship representative of the decentralized funding trend.

Some other prominent tokens within this ecosystem include:

• $DUPE: Once surged 6x within a week but has since dropped over 55%, with its market cap now around $26 million, highlighting the extreme volatility of tokens in this space.
• $NOODLE: A meme-style token that experienced high volatility, plunging 54.5% within 24 hours, underscoring the high-risk nature of these assets.
• $GOONC and $BUDDY: Emerging tokens with strong momentum, with $BUDDY posting a 1,146% gain in a single day.

In addition, data from posts on X show that over 31,000 wallet addresses have interacted with tokens on Believe.app, indicating strong community engagement across the Web3 landscape.

Token	Change 24h (%)	Market Cap	Holder
$LAUNCHCOIN	+18%	250M	30,000
$DUPE	-59%	24M	7,000
$NOODLE	-61%	3.1M	6,300
$GOONC	-55%	26.2M	7,600
$BUDDY	-65%	3.8M	3,700

Opportunities and Risks of ICM

Opportunities and Benefits

For developers, Internet Capital Markets open up a new path to accessing capital without the need for traditional approval or fundraising processes. They can raise tens of thousands of USD within just a few hours if the token gains strong community support.

For individual investors, ICM offers a chance to get in early on breakthrough ideas, with the potential for multi-fold returns if the project succeeds. This is reminiscent of the early ICO boom in 2017 or the DeFi Summer of 2020.

For everyday users, becoming an “on-chain shareholder” goes beyond simple trading – it includes participating in governance, proposing ideas, and receiving rewards from the project’s growth.

Risks and Controversies

While Internet Capital Markets represents a bold reimagining of early-stage crypto fundraising, the model is far from risk-free. In fact, many industry observers are beginning to draw comparisons between ICM and previous speculative bubbles that promised transformation but collapsed under the weight of their own hype.

The first major risk is extreme volatility. Tokens within the ICM ecosystem are often created and listed within minutes, usually without a working product or roadmap. As a result, their prices tend to be driven purely by sentiment. When attention fades or narrative momentum stalls, the crash can be brutal. 

For example, the token $NOODLE lost over 50% of its market value within 24 hours of launch – a pattern eerily reminiscent of the AI token boom in early 2023, when projects like $ALYX, $NUMA, or $GPT surged on buzz alone, only to lose 70–90% within weeks.

The second major risk is fraud. With platforms like Believe.app allowing anyone to launch a token by simply posting on X, there’s little to no identity verification or accountability. This low barrier has led to a proliferation of “pump-and-dump” schemes and rug pulls. 

Some developers build hype, attract retail capital, and exit before any real development begins, mirroring incidents seen during the Ghibli Finance trend in late 2023, where anime-themed tokens attracted millions in liquidity before imploding almost overnight.

The third and broader risk is the formation of a speculative bubble. ICM’s rise bears striking similarities to past movements like DeSci (Decentralized Science). In 2022–2023, DeSci projects promised to revolutionize scientific research by enabling open funding through crypto tokens. Despite early hype and funding, most tokens failed due to poor delivery and limited real use.

Some experts warn ICM may form a bubble, as many tokens lack real products. From a legal perspective, such public fundraising – if left unregulated, may soon attract scrutiny from regulatory authorities. 

If ICM survives early volatility, it could grow long-term like the AI narrative did.

Conclusion

Internet Capital Markets are in the early stages of their development cycle, carrying both significant opportunities and considerable risks. They represent a new wave of democratized fundraising and innovation in turning ideas into tradable assets.

However, for the ecosystem to survive and grow sustainably, it must evolve in terms of governance, legal clarity, and product standardization. In a world where “trust” itself can become a tradable asset, ICM serves as a critical test of the crypto market’s maturity in the coming decade.

Read more: Trading with Free Crypto Signals in Evening Trader Channel

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