Internet Capital Markets: A New Trend, or Another Meme Hype?

Words: Mario @IOSG

TL; DR:

Internet Capital Markets (ICM) is a crypto-native alternative to traditional capital markets (TCM) that allows entrepreneurs to raise funds directly from the online community through tokenization, bypassing red tape procedures such as venture capital and initial public offerings (IPOs). Platforms such as the Believe App (formerly Clout) are spearheading this revolution on the Solana chain, allowing users to easily launch and invest in projects even by simply @平台 on X (formerly Twitter).

Despite the criticisms such as lack of regulation, low barriers to entry, and the tendency to issue misleading tokens, ICM has strong potential for mass adoption, especially in promoting Web3 to Web2 users through a clean user experience, fiat payment on-ramp, and viral narrative. To achieve long-term growth, platforms like Believe need to move beyond the short-term hype to drive founder accountability, optimize the token economic model, build DAO governance, and deliver real utility to truly transform ICM from a meme boom to a new paradigm of capital formation.

Background of Traditional Capital MarketsIn

traditional capital markets (TCMs), entrepreneurs often rely on expensive and time-consuming financing methods, such as initial public offerings (IPOs) or venture capital. This approach presents its own challenges.

From a fundan's perspective, entrepreneurs have to deal with lengthy application processes, complex legal formalities, and constantly pandering to investor preferences, which often distracts them from focusing on product development or community building.

From the perspective of investors, the early investment opportunities are basically monopolized by large institutions, such as hedge funds and mutual funds. Ordinary investors have little to no share, and often wait for project valuations to skyrocket before entering the market.

Not only is this model inefficient and unopen, but it also leads to a significant misalignment of incentives between creators and supporters. These structural issues reflect the urgent need for a more open, direct and participatory approach to financing, which is at the heart of what the Internet Capital Markets (ICM) seeks to address.