The Current State Of ICON, ICX, Crypto Investing Thoughts, And Going Forward

By: @Genesis

Intro

Hey all! I wanted to take time to express my thoughts on the current state of matters. Not only is this post a representation of what I feel around ICON’s sentiment, it’s also a guide to those who wish to know what exactly is happening with ICX, it’s place in this market, and whether or not you should sell, buy, or trade. This will be quite the long read without a TL:DR (as I feel it’s an important post), so it will take some time to take it all in. Without further ado, let’s get into it.

What Is Happening To ICX?

There’s a lot, and I mean a lot of uncertainty around ICX. It’s currently been going down massively in Satoshi value, but keeping its dollar value. Not only that, but it’s been moving down in market cap everyday. To be quite honest, I consider it very normal to be worried about it going down in terms of price. In my personal opinion, there are far, far too many people who are bitter from In terms of price,but don’t pay enough attention to its value.

When I say value, I’m not talking about ICX as a token, coin, or asset. I’m talking about it’s place within the network. The ICON team, community, and many others have been building out products and contributing to its code base. We have an upcoming election, staking, and so much more coming, due to the community building on that key factor, value. At this very moment, there’s not much you can do with ICX. If you look at it in a few months time when more of the pieces come together, will you have the same opinion?

Now, we can talk a bit about what’s going on with the price (which is very interesting). In my personal opinion, there’s an entity (or multiple) that are keeping the price “in check” so that they’re able to accumulate more. To provide a bit of proof to my theory, Bitcoin has had a bit of fluctuation, and this has caused ICX’ value to decrease in Satoshi value, but stay the same in terms of USD price. In my honest opinion, if Bitcoin were to hit $100K, and these whales wanted to keep ICX at this price, it would be very possible for ICX to be .030 in Satoshi value, further moving it down in value. If this theory proves true, what do you think will happen when they’re done accumulating?

It’s very possible that people are selling due to ICON not meeting expectations (which I will get to later), but It’s not likely (again in my opinion). ICX isn’t dumping in a way currently that would make me believe so. If people really wanted to, ICX could have a price-point below a penny, but it’s not going any lower, even in the most worst market conditions. It’s stable, and people are accumulating. It doesn’t matter if they have to push it out of the top #100, they will do whatever it takes to meet their goals.

In conclusion to this segment, pay attention to ICX and ICON’s value, not its price. Yes it matters if you want to be a millionaire overnight or be a trader, but understanding its value proposition will get you much, much further. That leads into me saying that its place on Coinmarketcap matters in terms of its price and acknowledgement, but that doesn’t mean that it has lost its fundamental value. There have been many coins and projects who have gone from out of the top #100 and into it, so it’s a pointless metric to follow, especially with so many quality projects coming into play. My final note on price is this. Bitcoin moves the market, and currently determines EVERY coin/token’s price.

Marketing & Community Engagement

We hear about their marketing, and in my opinion, this shouldn’t be overlooked. I personally do not feel that Min should not do any PR. Not because I don’t respect the man and what he does, but he’s not suited for it, in my honest. Every time he states something or does an AMA, it leads to more FUD, attacks, and trolling. He understands the project more than any of us possibly ever will, and you cannot undermine this fact. To put this into something that’s easier to explain, remember Charlie Lee exiting LTC and the amount of FUD from that? It’s good to see that Litecoin is failing like everyone said it was .

As far as “they need to market more!”, this is definitely a double edged sword. As the ICON team has stated, they want many, many more developers. Marketing would definitely help them get the developers they need, while also emphasizing the importance of what ICON is trying to achieve. Not only does this lead to more costs, it also requires a restructure on how they (the team) works. On the other hand, this can lead to them focusing more on marketing, false expectations, and far worse scenarios than now. They want to focus on the hard work first (building) instead of marketing without fulfilling promises (TRON).

Now, do I feel that ICON needs to try to get the word out about their existence? Of course! Not only will it lead to positive growth within their own chain, it will allow them to build faster by encouraging more people to join its ecosystem. Currently at this time, all we can do is ask that they improve their efforts, nothing more. It’s something completely out of our control, and is something that I’m assuming they put off until they finish building out more of their product.

Their Mistakes, Holding Onto The Past, & ICON’s Fundamentals

There’s no denying that ICON has made many, many mistakes. To start, and something that still sticks, is Min stating that the DEX was ready when it really wasn’t. This lead to a good amount of uncertainty around ICON, ICX, and it’s value proposition. With so many roadmap delays, and investors losing money, what choices were there to make? It was an odd time, with partnerships being announced left and right, but trying to build out complex technology.

While they’ve made many mistakes in the past, they’ve kept going forward despite those mistakes. They didn’t pull an exit scam like many thought they were, their working with major entities (like Seoul) to build out a functional ecosystem, and have continued to hire and progress during the worst market conditions. Even though they’ve made those mistakes, they’ve been crushing it on the development and business side, and are still extending their team with funds to spare.

A lot people are holding onto the past, and this ultimately is a no go in any circumstance. Time is currently going forward, and investors are stuck in the past. Do I remember how it was to see ICX continue to go a on a downward spiral? Do I remember the roadmap getting delayed time and time again? Of course I do, and I did feel disgruntled during this time. As time moved forward, I found that it was ultimately pointless to feel this way. Do I keep holding, or do I sell?

Even though the price was currently in a downfall, nothing has changed in their team’s progression. They were still building massive business relations. They were still growing as a team, and they weren’t giving up building what they were set out to do. Despite the price falling, ICON hasn’t faltered in terms of fundamental value. ICON wasn’t in a downward spiral because of it’s fundamentals, it was in a spiral due to market conditions and an exhausted bull market. Even today, they’ve still continued this same streak of grinding until it’s complete.

If you’re holding onto the past, it’s time to start thinking about now. The only thing that ICON is failing in is its marketing. Community engagement has been vastly improved, they’re still trying to expand even though they don’t need to, and it’s ecosystem has been constantly expanding. Everything is coming together now, while you’re still make a judgment on back then. There’s still not enough there for me to sell, and no amount of FUD from random people on the internet should sway you or me on what’s being accomplished.

Underlying Fundamentals Around FUD

Fear, uncertainty and doubt. I’ve seen this shake some of the strongest of hands, and to be honest, I find it normal. When you’re invested in something, whether it be life woes or money (as in this case), your opinion can easily be swayed. Currently, there’s a great attempt to FUD ICX into the ground. Whether that’s to get the price lower and into their hands easier, or to see investors in shambles, the underlying reasons behind it are the same. To get you to lose.

If some of the FUD is leaving you questioning what you’re invested in, that’s a good thing. It means that you’re not willing to follow that crowd, and you’re willing to express concern around your investment. Believing in only this, and losing sight of why you’re here, is where you lose. FUD from others should never be a determining factor on whether you should sell, but used as an insight as to what’s actually happening.

Those people are completely different from you, and so are their opinions. They’re holding onto the past, are angered, and are trying to drag others down to that same level. Many times (not all), it’s to get you to believe in their story, not yours. The point I’m getting to is this. You know why you’re here, and you know why you’re invested. Unless it’s something of SERIOUS concern (team losing money, can’t sustain business relations, people quitting, and so on), why should random guy’s opinion on the internet sway you from what you’re invested in? There’s a difference between expressing concern and bringing others down for their own gain.

If you’re invested in a project, and you believe in it, you do that. If you believe that your project is worth investing in, and you know that it has an excellent value proposition, what exactly are you worried about? Let me tell you something right now. People who are successful investors aren’t spending time on Reddit looking for a reason to invest in a new blockchain project, and opinions from people on socials aren’t swaying them. You do your own thing, and worry about yourself.

Unrealistic Expectations & Unsure Investment Mindset

There are many, many people who want their investments to moon overnight. Everyone wants this, from the poorest to the most rich. To be honest, these expectations are unrealistic, and need to be kept in check. To be completely transparent, I’m 100% guilty of being in this crowd, and so are many others. Can you believe that I thought ICX was going to be $100 roughly two years ago? While it seemed possible then, it was unrealistic.

In my opinion, everyone needs to keep this part in check. Even @peter (that’s why his brother is around to keep him in check ) has made some outlandish calls, and so have I and many others. It’s all apart of the game, and learning the process as people who invest in nascent technologies. The issue is holding onto this mindset and not learning from it.

I’ve been on this forum every. single. day since I’ve joined. I’ve watched people scream moon at every price rise, and people were ready to buy their Lamborghini the following weekend. As time progressed, they’ve expressed negative sentiment towards crypto as a whole and have definitely been disgruntled. They lost money (in asset price), and definitely felt some of that uncertainty.

Instead of giving up on crypto as a whole, they’ve decided to learn from it. That negative sentiment turned into learning, rationality, and solidifying them as an investor. Seeing this, you can only follow such a mindset. Investing what I could afford to lose, knowing that there will always be more opportunities, and focusing on my daily live was all we really needed. Knowing that your investment can go into the ground or go to the moon is easier said than done.

To conclude, keep your expectations in check. This is a new technology, and people are experimenting. At its core, this a speculative market with a grand amount of promise. Keeping your expectations realistic around any crypto is needed. It will take time to build, and many times, the price won’t be representative of what they’re building. There will always be projects built on hype, but ultimately the projects with long-term viability will follow through (BTC, LTC, ETH, NEO, and so on).

If you’re unsure on what’s happening in the markets, it’s time to do your research before even investing. If you lose all of your money and didn’t expect to, then you’re in the wrong market. Either learn from it or get out.

Conclusion & Guidelines Going Forward On The Pub

I still hold ICX, and I will continue to do so. Not because I’m a “hopeless bagholder”, but because I know a great product when I see one. I’m close to hitting my personal goal, and ICON will be sitting in my Ledger while I figure out ways to get involved in ICON’s Ecosystem. If ICON fails, so be it. I have other projects that I follow, and if all else failed, Bitcoin will always be here. If ICON succeeds, then I will see you on the moon . Nothing more, nothing less as I’ve stated my part too many times to count.

If you made it to the end, I’m grateful that you read it all! There’s not much for me to say other than thank you for all of your participation on the Pub. Every opinion, whether negative or positive is greatly appreciated as that’s what makes the pub as it is. This also leads into my next statement. Going forward, we’re going to a bit more aggressive in our efforts to keep the pub what it used to be. Back in the day, the pub was a place discuss crypto in a logical, meaningful way.

As time has progressed, it’s starting to lose that charm mainly due to trolls, thread derailment, FUD, and so on. If you’ve been on the pub for some time, you know exactly who you are that keep this place alive, so you don’t have to be concerned. So before you decide to troll the forum, really factor in if you want to be apart of a massive game of whack-a-mole . Overall, I hope this has helped anyone concerned about ICON, its sentiment, and guidance on the pub. Thanks for reading and have a good one!