This is a little bit of a read, so settle in, boys and girls. I haven’t posted on this account in a long time. For those of you who don’t remember me (probably everyone), I live-tweeted from the ICON event in Seoul in 2018 and gave my thoughts. I’ve done extremely well in investing, both in crypto and in stocks/bonds traditional markets. I believe I am probably one of ICON’s largest solo investors. I’ve gone through the dark crypto winter just like you and have continued to study crypto projects and invest. And now I’m back to give some of my thoughts on ICON, and what I believe needs to happen as I sadly watch ICX continue to drop down my list of top held assets after being #1 for so long. I give that background/info because some of this may sound a little harsh, however, I’m writing this because I care and because I believe ICON has the most potential of anything I’m holding. If I didn’t believe in ICON, I’d dump it and never give it a second thought. I care, and I’m saying this to help.
I believe that most of the community is aware of the importance of Coinbase. Coinbase provides legitimacy, trust, and being listed there shows that they believe the cryptocurrency has a bright future. However, it seems like the ICON team and even some community P-reps (there was a post just today which is prompting me to write this) try to downplay it so that ICX investors don’t feel bad if Coinbase doesn’t list ICX or something? I’m not sure. So here I will 1) clearly lay out a few reasons why Coinbase listing ICX is important for the future of the project and is therefore important to all who are invested, 2) Transparently discuss what ICX’s current status is in regards to listing on Coinbase, and 3) Talk about what the ICON team can do, and what we, the community, can do to make this happen.
Before I start I just want to state that, in my opinion, Coinbase listing ICX is the single most important thing that the ICON team, Foundation, P-Reps, Community, etc. could be focusing on. Some of the reasons for this are stated below.
Why Coinbase is important for the future of ICON (Hint: It’s not for a quick “listing pump”):
· Coinbase is THE on-ramp for USD, and USD is what’s driving the current meteoric rise of cryptocurrency. Microstrategy, One River, Paypal, Square. Institutional money is buying in big and they are using Coinbase to do it. If we’re not on Coinbase we have zero shot at attracting any of that money- or any of the money following that money (this is what we want at this stage).
· Big (non-institutional) US money has nowhere to buy ICX. The volume is all on Binance which recently kicked out the rest of the US users who had been flying under the radar. HitBTC is the next exchange in volume that allows US investors. However, they’re sketchy as f*** and constantly lock people’s funds on their exchange. (I have $20k locked up there currently…) Most of the volume is probably fake as well since no one can withdraw funds. And no, no one is going to use a VPN to illegally access a foreign exchange to purchase or trade hundreds of thousands of dollars in ICX. And no, no one wants to raise the price of ICX 30% on Kraken buy purchasing $50k of ICX- honestly though, the convenience and safety of Coinbase would incentivize me to buy even at a higher price. We just need a decent exchange over here.
· Retail money flows into Coinbase. When Americans tell their friends about cryptocurrency (or are asked about it) Coinbase is the only name anyone gives to beginners. If a coin is not listed on Coinbase it will miss out on a massive portion of retail money- especially now that regulation has closed off so many other exchanges to US customers. I would love to recommend ICX to my friends who ask about cryptocurrency, but it’s a hard sell getting people to open one account, let alone multiple accounts on random websites they’ve never heard of to dump money into things they’ve never heard of.
· Upcoming Coinbase IPO. As u/user_1950 mentioned in a response to another post “A Coinbase IPO will bring new investors into the fold and most new crypto investors will utilize the exchange they have a stake in. In my research, the cross-pollination of executives from Wall Street to Coinbase/Gemini is a factor of 10x vs. the other platforms out there. You are correct that being on Coinbase will not do much for the price of ICX in the short term, but over the longer-term cycle, it may determine whether the market value creation of ICX will move up by 10x or 100x or more.” It is not necessarily all about right now. It’s about being prepared to catch more of the future waves of money that are going to hit the crypto markets.
· Awareness. The single biggest/best advertisement or endorsement for a cryptocurrency is the price (steadily, preferably) going up. It raises awareness of the project, it incentivizes developers, it brings in new community members. The second biggest/best endorsement is listing on Coinbase. Projects on Coinbase are seen as mature, well-funded, unique, secure, and are considered to have strong future prospects. Who wouldn’t want that endorsement for ICON? Cryptocurrencies listed on Coinbase also get a whole new set of millions of eyes looking into what they're doing, what they're making, what their goals are, who they're working with, etc. I believe many people who see the great things ICON is doing with governments and huge corporations would choose to invest- with Coinbase's endorsement.
The current Coinbase situation for ICON:
· Rosetta implementation apparently due to be completed Jan 2021. This is soon, and this is good. Coinbase basically requires this in order for coins to be listed on their exchange. It has to do with how they run things there and it makes it easy for them to “plug and play”, so to speak.
· On Aug 3, 2018 Coinbase posted that they were “exploring a range of new assets ”- including ICX. At the time, Icon was around $1.00 with a marketcap of $330 million. We are around this marketcap again now, but price per token is down quite a bit. However, (speculation alert) I believe they were exploring ICX due to Pantera Capital most likely asking them to provide custody. In April of 2018, the CEO of Pantera Capital stated in a Bloomberg interview that ICON was their single largest position. In April- probably around when Pantera asked Coinbase the price was around $3-5 per ICX and was in the top 15-20ish coins with $1 Billion-$1.8 Billion marketcap. Total cryptocurrency marketcap at the time was $400B, so ICON was making a pretty good showing for itself. Currently we’re ranked deep in the 60s, with a marketcap of $350B in a market that is worth over a trillion dollars. To regain that marketshare, ICX would have to go 10x from here with the rest of the market remaining where it is. This wasn’t even close to the peak ICX had reached a few months earlier. I think that due to the extreme relative marketcap decrease ICON has probably fallen off of Coinbase’s radar almost completely. This isn’t a fact necessarily, but just a gut feeling. The positive spin on this situation is that Pantera Capital still lists ICON on their website and is most likely still holding. I highly doubt that ICON is still their largest investment, but if the price increases enough it could trigger them to re-initiate talks with Coinbase. Who knows. This Pantera stuff is all educated guessing and speculation, other than the fact that at around $4 they held enough for it to be their single largest investment.
· Coinbase has a “Digital Assest Framework” that they use to evaluate new assets and (in my opinion) ICON now meets all of the criteria. Here is their framework. I have gone through it and believe that ICON now meets all of their criteria. This obviously doesn’t mean that they’re going to add ICX- there are probably many unlisted cryptocurrencies which meet their criteria. However, it shows that ICON is in a pretty good place overall and has a real shot.
· Rumors (I think?) that Coinbase Custody requires $50m of any asset which they list on their exchanges.
I would guess that currently the only single entity who could make this happen is the ICON Foundation. There is a $100,000 setup fee and they charge 1.2% a year. The ICON Foundation is in control of addresses worth way more than this at current values. Yeah, the fee is expensive… But suck it up and have Coinbase hold $50m worth of your ICX for the reasons stated above. This is an investment, and you will easily make back the setup fee and 1.2% a year. It’s a no-brainer.
· Coinbase has an application page for listing… And no one from ICON has even tried applying. This is confirmed by a Coinbase employee who would know. Obviously this is all hearsay to you, however I trust the sources. And the ICON team’s apathy toward this topic confirms it even further for me.
What can ICON do?
Overall there are some positives and some negatives. ICON is doing better than many projects in many ways, however there is always room for improvement. I believe if the ICON team would put some effort into it they could get ICX listed on Coinbase in the near future (regrettably, probably after the IPO since Coinbase is most likely focused on that). Would it cost some money? Yes. Would it take a little work? Yes. But just suck it up and do it. If you are concerned about the fees, ask for P-Rep help funding it or something. I would literally pay the $100k fee myself if it guaranteed a listing on Coinbase. Talk to your advisors (Pantera, etc) and see if they would help (Spoiler alert: They would. Everyone in the US who owns ICX wants it on Coinbase). Get f***ing Shinhan Bank (Holds $375B in assets and partnered with ICONLOOP for multiple projects) or one of your many other high-powered partners to help out and talk to Coinbase even if it is just to help show ICON’s legitimacy. Maybe one of your many bank partners wants to invest in the Coinbase IPO or has investors asking about it. Make some introductions. Call in some favors. Talk to people. Business stuff. Network. Put in literally any effort. Fill out the application at least. Get in contact with the Coinbase listing team. See what you need to do, and get it done.
What can we, the community, do?
There are a few things we can do, but regrettably most of this is on the ICON team/Foundation.
· Stay active in the community- particularly Reddit and the ICON forums as these are much more visible and are easier to reference than Telegram. I would try to move as much discussion as possible toward those two platforms. If you are active in the Telegram channels, try to move your conversations to the new daily discussion Reddit thread. A highly active community is part of the Coinbase “Digital Asset Framework” listing criteria.
· Add ICX to your Watchlist in your Coinbase accounts, here. I know you all have accounts there. If you haven’t already, go find ICX and add it to your watchlist.
· Make sure that P-Reps and the ICON team know that Coinbase listing ICX is a high priority for the community.
· Stay positive. Constructive criticism doesn’t mean I hate ICON. ICX, until recently, has been my largest asset by total USD value. If you have constructive criticism, share it. ICON is a great project. The projects being developed with their enterprise and government partners are at a level most cryptocurrency projects can only dream of achieving. The community is large and great things have been made that are drawing traffic and keeping people involved. The network is stable, fast, cheap, easy to use, documentation is organized, and development/improvement is happening at a rapid pace. ICON 2.0 is on pace to be implemented this year. Great things are happening and will happen. Stay positive and spread the good word.
· Hold ICX forever, restake all rewards, buy more, and never even think about selling. Jk... Unless?
Conclusion:
Coinbase listing is much more important than many people in positions of power at ICON seem to realize. If you personally don’t think Coinbase is important for ICON to thrive, please try to look at this situation from some other angles. Obviously everyone is entitled to their own opinions, however my opinion(and probably the opinion of many others) is that getting on Coinbase as soon as possible should be the main focus for ICON in order to be as prepared as possible to help the ICON network grow.
To people at ICON who generally seem to take this kind of suggestion or constructive criticism defensively- please open your mind to other opinions and listen to your investors. Look, I know you don’t owe us anything. We’re not equity investors. But I’m assuming you want your project to succeed and you want your investment to increase in value. This is a proven, sure-fire way to increase the eyes that look at ICON and see all the great things you are working on. And this in turn will bring even more development and use of the network.
Hopefully this was educational as far as ICON’s current standing with Coinbase (That we know of. They obviously can’t talk about it if there is other stuff going on), and what Coinbase wants/needs to list assets. And hopefully some of the right people see this and focus on what the community wants/needs. With more exposure and a rising prices comes much more development. We all want the same thing here. Anyway, probably not the best time to post this, but I'm going to bed (Finally. Wtf am I doing?). I'll respond to any questions or comments and things tomorrow.
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