Since July, Solana has been pushing the Internet Capital Markets (ICM) narrative.
From Solana Foundation’s 2027 roadmap:
ICMs refer to a globally accessible ledger where entities, currencies, and cultures are tokenized, allowing anyone with an internet connection access to capital markets.
In simpler terms: ICM = turning the internet + blockchain into a capital market where ideas/projects can be funded, tokens issued, and traded — broadly and cheaply.
We’ve all seen the boom of memecoins and trenches. Memecoins have brought huge liquidity and attention to Solana, making it one of the most active chains ever.
However, they’ve also received a lot of criticism for being “pump and dump” tokens with no real value.
Even Toly tweeted:
I’ve said this for years. Memecoins and NFTs are digital slop and have no intrinsic value. Like a mobile game loot box. People spend $150B a year on mobile gaming. — @aeyakovenko, July 27, 2025
From the roadmap and Solana’s key figures, it’s clear that the new goal is to rebrand memecoin energy — liquidity, community, and excitement — into productive capital formation, where people actually build things, not just flip coins.
Just earlier today, Pump.fun also created a new Twitter account @pumpspotlight with “ICM” on its banner — signaling the start of the ICM era.
So the question is — how can we participate in this ICM narrative?
We can: 1) Invest directly in promising projects with real value, or 2)Invest in an incubator which will launch and support a batch of projects.
Obviously, the latter is easier — and more scalable.
That’s why I’m writing about ICM.run.
First, it’s important to clear this up — ICM.run is not a launchpad.
It’s a DAO-based incubator and is launchpad agnostic.
Instead of just listing tokens, ICM.run acts as an incubator, where key mentors provide real guidance to early-stage Solana-native founders — helping them launch tokens properly, build sustainable ecosystems, and foster lasting communities.
Many of us remember the early days of Believe, where some founders would make “newbie” moves and their projects would instantly lose momentum. Once that momentum is gone, it’s incredibly hard to recover.
This is exactly the problem ICM.run aims to solve.
By addressing these early-stage challenges directly, ICM.run’s DAO ensures founders avoid common pitfalls and instead gain the reputation, support, and strategy they need to succeed.
What makes it even stronger is the people behind it. The mentors include:
A full list can be found here.
These are not random advisors — they’re seasoned builders from a wide breath of different subsets of the crypto world who clearly understand what it takes to make a project successful.
On top of Key Mentors there are also over 70 key contributors which can be found here.
Every project that goes through ICM.run follows a simple DAO process with four main steps:
Mentors and contributors are also rewarded through these allocations — keeping everyone’s incentives aligned.
From the initial batch alone, which closed last month, the team received over 100 applications to join the incubator.
Among them was OG Protocol, founded by @jtwald, the founder of @zynga — the company behind Farmville and Words With Friends, currently valued at over $12 billion.
This early traction shows that ICM.run isn’t just attracting degen attention — it’s pulling in experienced founders and serious builders who see Solana’s ICM as the next major platform for on-chain innovation.
The DAO treasury is distributed proportionally to $ICM token holders, meaning holders effectively get exposure to every project incubated.
When you hold $ICM, you’re not just betting on one project — you’re backing a portfolio of early Solana-native projects, all supported by mentors and contributors.
In that sense, $ICM works like an ETF — instead of picking one token, you get exposure to all of them through the DAO treasury.
If the ICM meta takes off, $ICM naturally grows with it.
ICM.run has a fun, meme-native culture that fits perfectly with Solana’s DNA.
Its NFT collection, ICM Investor Center Cult (available on MagicEden), features creative and funny memes — like “another Hermès bag for Evelyn Ha” — that make the community feel chill, funny, and connected.
NFT holders might also receive additional perks like token airdrops, though details are still under wraps.
In short, ICM is here and even Solana sees where this can take the chain even further, and ICM.run is one of the cleanest ways to bet on Solana’s ICM narrative.