This edition of the newsletter analyses Internet Capital Markets (ICM) --> a new meta on Solana that allows builders to instantly tokenize and fund their ideas directly through social media (via the Believe app) without traditional VCs or pitch decks, turning viral web2 ideas into immediately tradable on-chain assets. This democratizes fundraising by enabling anyone to invest capital (not just likes) in early-stage projects, with builders earning 50% of trading fees and communities participating in governance, essentially combining crowdfunding, angel investing, and meme trading into one permissionless system.. We'll also share some interesting articles, portfolio updates and market highlights.
a) Token is no longer the product. An industry split or "this time is different" (truly).
• The crypto industry has experienced a fundamental split between tokens and products, with many teams now focusing on building real businesses rather than token-based projects due to poor venture cycle returns since 2022 and the failure of traditional token incentive strategies.
• This shift has been driven by structural disillusionment with "empty, useless tokens" and the realization that sustainable crypto businesses can now be built through actual product-market fit in areas like swaps, stablecoins, and onchain finance, leading teams to either abandon or delay token launches in favor of equity-focused company building.
In 2019, almost every VC said "F*ck tokens, we want equity. Tokens were a mistake!" A year later, they were buying every series A. Is this time different, truly? Let's see.
b) Democratizing AI: The Psyche Network Architecture
• Psyche is a decentralized AI training infrastructure built by Nous Research that democratizes AI development by allowing anyone to contribute their underutilized hardware to train large language models across the internet, using an improved version of the DisTrO algorithm that reduces data transfer by orders of magnitude.
• The system coordinates training through the Solana blockchain and will first train a 40B parameter model called "Consilience" across 20T tokens, representing the largest pretraining run conducted over the internet to date while making AI development accessible beyond large corporations.
Psyche is an open infrastructure that democratizes AI development by decentralizing training across underutilized hardware. Building on DisTrO and its predecessor DeMo, Psyche reduces data transfer by several orders of magnitude, making distributed training practical. Coordination happens on the Solana blockchain, ensuring a fault-tolerant and censorship-resistant network.
c) Why Payments Is Not Just a Use Case
• Last week's major crypto developments, including Stripe/Bridge enabling global stablecoin transactions, Meta considering stablecoin creator payouts, and Coinbase's x402 payment standard for AI agents, demonstrate that payments (not RWAs) is becoming crypto's killer use case.
• This shift is transformational because it gives crypto its first stable Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR), breaking the industry's dependence on bull/bear cycles and creating a reliable foundation for sustained growth that can prevent talent exodus and support the broader ecosystem.
Last week wasn't about RWAs.
a) Sonic
• Sonic Labs has completed a $10 million strategic token sale of its S token to Galaxy, a global leader in digital assets and data center infrastructure, to strengthen its position in the U.S. market and accelerate DeFi ecosystem development.
• This partnership announced at the Sonic Summit in Vienna aims to leverage Galaxy's extensive network of over 1,300 institutional trading counterparties to bridge traditional finance with Sonic's high-performance blockchain infrastructure.
Sonic Labs completes $10M S token sale to Galaxy, boosting U.S. expansion and accelerating DeFi ecosystem growth with institutional backing.
b) Solv Protocol
• Solv Protocol has partnered with Rootstock, a Bitcoin sidechain that enables smart contracts while maintaining Bitcoin's security, to expand Bitcoin's role in DeFi through their SolvBTC product.
• The collaboration allows Bitcoin holders to participate in DeFi activities like staking, lending, and yield farming using rBTC (Rootstock Bitcoin), which maintains a 1:1 peg with Bitcoin and provides EVM compatibility for seamless integration with other blockchain ecosystems.
At Solv Protocol, we believe it's time to change that by exploring a collaboration with Rootstock, we aim to unlock new ways for Bitcoin holders to earn, stake, and participate in DeFi. Rootstock is...
Over the past 3 weeks, the (on-chain) narrative has shifted between various metas (Boop launchpad, Bonk ecosystem tokens) and this time its about a whole new primitive for the internet: Internet Capital Markets (ICM) --> turning viral (web2) ideas, apps, and memes into instantly tradable assets that are on-chain.
The whole premise of this meta democratise "fundraise" for founders, where there is no pitch decks and no VCs. Just attention (from founders being active on social media) --> token through launchpads --> funding from launching the tokens + fees --> and (hopefully) translates into these founders building solid apps and useful protocols.
This is all happening on Solana, where the throughput finally matches the speed of culture.
What is ICM?
Internet Capital Markets are permissionless, onchain marketplaces where:
Builders launch a tokenized version of their idea directly on X/Twitter (via Believe App)
Anyone (on-chain participants) can buy into the idea --> not just with likes, but with capital (basically buying the token)
Early believers help bootstrap liquidity and influence the roadmap of the protocol (governance)
Builders monetize through trading fees and build with community conviction
You can see how ICM is a blend of crowdfunding (kickstarter), early-stage investing (Angel List), and meme trading (PumpFun mechanics + speculative nature of crypto) --> wrapped in one click.
Believe App: The Launch Engine of ICM
At the heart of this (new-ish) movement is Believe --> a Solana-native launchpad where:
Anyone can reply @launch + $TOKENNAME to mint a tradable coin on Solana
Coins use bonding curves and auto-graduate into deeper liquidity pools (via Meteora)
50% of trading fees go to the builder/team
Active builders can link their X account, claim earnings, and build with their audience (co-build and ride the upside together)
Crowdfunding using memes?
Why this Matters?
Traditional capital markets fund companies through private rounds, equity, and IPOs. In crypto, it has usually been through crypto funds or ICOs (which are more decentralised). ICM flips that by letting builders go public on day one, with no permission needed.
Builders: Raise instantly. Monetize from attention.
Traders: Take a bet early on founders, apps, culture, creators.
Solana: Infra adoption meets narrative flywheel.
Notable projects
Observations + Risks
Observations
Early product traction matters, some apps that did well showed early revenue, traction, or downloads and were able to justify their valuations
In an attention economy, the meme is the wrapper, utility is the core. Even meme-ish projects like $JELLYJELLY have actual apps tied to them and Tier 1 founders (ex Venmo)
Believe = Meta Layer/infra leading this meta
Builder visibility is crucial: Verified accounts, evangelising on Twitter through updates, and roadmaps drastically improve trust and traction with participants.
After the AI Agent meta, crypto has been in dire need of a (thematic) meta breaker and this could potentially be one. This is also coupled with the trend of "vibe coding" culture taking off (where solo builders, indie developers, and X personalities skip traditional VC and launch directly to their audience)
For the Believe launchpad, many celebrated founders have staked their name and reputation behind this movement
Risks
High rug potential since anyone can launch, but everyone can deliver (in crypto there are essentially two products --> the actual product + the token)
Speculation > substance --> narrative may move faster than product (this is especially true since the majority of these ICM tokens are pre-product)
For this to keep going, the Believe team needs to ensure to onboard proper web2 founders to launch good projects + tokens (if not, its just another PumpFun launchpad with another narrative spin)
The main token for Believe needs some tokenomics upgrade and more value accrual as well, currently functions as a meme together with all the other ICM tokens
TLDR
Best ideas instantly fundable --> by anyone, anywhere and blends in culture/meme, capital, and community into one meta.
The true endgame for ICM isn’t (hopefully) just meme volatility, it’s permissionless, global startup funding built natively for the internet.
If just a handful of apps break out and reach mainstream virality, the blueprint and launch strategy may change forever.
*Disclosure: The information provided on this newsletter is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute professional nor investment advice.
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