ICON (ICX) price

ICON (ICX) is the native coin of the ICON blockchain, a project from South Korea built around connecting different blockchains and applications. The goal is to let organizations and independent networks exchange data and assets without a single intermediary. The project is associated with ICONLOOP, a company that builds blockchain solutions for businesses.

ICX is the network's main token. It pays fees for transactions and smart contract execution, and it is used for staking and governance. The network relies on delegated staking: ICX holders vote for public representatives (P-Reps), who help run the network and take part in decisions. The more ICX is delegated to a representative, the more influence they have. Details of the consensus design have changed over time, so current parameters are best checked in the project's documentation.

The supply of ICX is not capped: about 1.10 billion coins are in circulation out of a total of about 1.11 billion, and there is no maximum. This is an inflationary model in which new coins are issued, partly as rewards for participating in the network. For a holder, that means a share of the total supply can shrink over time if the coins are not staked.

What to watch: the share of ICX that is staked, how concentrated votes are among a small number of representatives, developer activity, and real use of the cross-chain features. The main risks are strong competition from other interoperability projects and the question of whether ICON can attract users beyond its own ecosystem. The October 2017 date on CoinMarketCap is a listing date, not necessarily the launch of the network.