ICX is trading at $0.72 today, its highest level since September 7. We generally avoid talking about the price of ICX or any other token at The Iconist, but there have been quite a few recent updates at ICON that we hope are part of the price rise. It seems like a good opportunity to review some of the fundamentals that may be driving the rise in ICX. And if they aren’t driving the price, perhaps they should be.

(Yes, yes. I know that the market has been up overall for the past few days, but ICON is outperforming the market.)

Building a Robust and Hyperconnected Ecosystem

  • Accelerators – ICON has already opened ICX_Station (pronounced ICX Space Station) accelerators in San Francisco and Seoul, hiring key staff to advise startups on technology as well as the business end of building a DApp. Plans for additional locations in Singapore and Tokyo are in the works.
  • Demo Days – Through AD4th, ICON is sponsoring monthly demo days for DApps building on the platform in Seoul, San Francisco, and they will soon also be available in Singapore and Tokyo. As far as I know, this is an opportunity unique to ICON DApps.
  • Active Projects – There are more than 15 public DApps currently building on ICON. While this is admittedly smaller than Ethereum, it is quite a large number compared to other platforms. We’ve covered a number of these DApps including DiscoverX, LogisticsX, ZenSports, STAYGE, MecaCoin and WeBloc.
  • Developer Portal – Back in August, ICON launched it’s developer portal in beta. Since then it has expanded to include a detailed technical manual, as well as a developer forum and community news. Developers should take better advantage of the forum. Every question appears to be getting answered in short order. (Thanks Spl3en!)

A Real Business and a Strong Team

  • Consulting for private companies – One of the least understood parts of ICON is its business model. The team behind Ethereum decided early on that they wouldn’t handle all the fussy business of helping big companies get on the blockchain. Instead this is handled by outside firms like ConsenSys. ICON has taken the opposite approach, providing plenty of hand holding, for a fee. This means that they have built…
  • An Incredible Team – As Min Kim pointed out in an earlier interview, they’ve expanded from 30 people in Korea to over 100 spread across Korea, US Japan, and soon, Singapore. They don’t just have offices full of developers. They’ve also hired business consultants, lawyers and other people in support positions, so they can competently help companies with both the technical and practical aspects of incorporating blockchain into their operations.
  • New executives – Making the team even stronger are new executive hires like YJ Chung  and Product Management Officer Woong Kim, who we recently interviewed. Kim spent most of his career at companies under the SK Group umbrella, including OKCashbag, Korea’s biggest loyalty points system.

Government and corporate ties