ICX is the native cryptocurrency of Icon, an interoperability blockchain protocol that helps connect multiple blockchains together for digital token and smart contract data sharing.

One of the main problems with blockchain projects is they are created independently and therefore aren’t able to interact with one another. For example, without protocols like Icon, it would be impossible to send tokens or share smart contract data between blockchains such as Solana and EOS.

The Icon Foundation held the ICX initial coin offering (ICO) in September 2017, offering 2,500 ICX for 1 ETH. The ICO made 50% of the total token supply available to the public and raised about $43 million. The remaining 50% of the tokens was allocated for product development and to Icon’s founding team.

Newly issued ICX is first held by the Icon treasury before it is distributed to community members based on their contribution to the project’s development.

The ICX price spiked to $13.16 in January 2018 a few months after its ICO the previous September. ICX, however, was part of the crypto bear market in 2018 and moved steadily downward to the price of $0.25 at the end of that year.

The ICX price remained consistently under $0.50 for the next two years before eventually breaking above $2 in early 2021.

The Icon network builds multiple components into its governance structure in order to maintain transparency and longevity, starting with “Public Representatives,” or P-Reps, who are responsible for producing blocks on the network. P-Reps receive votes from ICX holders that determine their rank.

P-Reps are elected by “ICONists,” who are incentivized to vote for P-Reps based on who contributes most to the network and whose policies they support. Policies are created or amended by the “Network Proposal System” (NPS), which P-Reps use to attempt to appeal to ICONists and attract votes.

P-Reps can also vote on or sponsor the proposals of their fellows using the “Contribution Proposal System” (CPS), which they can do to acquire additional rewards. They must, however, offer collateral equivalent to 10% of a proposal’s budget should it be unsuccessful.

Finally, a system called the “Blockchain Transmission Protocol” (BTP) allows messages to pass between connected blockchain by relayers. All data sent between blockchains are verified by smart contracts.

The Icon blockchain project was founded in August 2017 by Mun Kim, a former chief strategy officer for Korean fintech holding company Dayli Financial Group. The Icon protocol is governed by the Icon Republic, with representatives from the Seoul government, Samsung and the Line messaging app. The Icon Republic has since added Shinhan Bank and Saramin, a South Korean recruiting firm, to its list of partners.

In December 2017, the Icon Republic joined the Blockchain Interoperability Alliance, which aims to promote interconnectivity between blockchain networks.

Icon started life on the Ethereum blockchain before it migrated to its own blockchain in January 2018. The Icon Mainnet 1.0 was released just ahead of the Icon Annual Summit: The Genesis and featured a native ICX wallet with an ERC20 token swap.

There followed rumors in early 2019 that Iconloop, the startup behind the project, was gearing up for an initial public offering on the South Korean technology-focused stock exchange Kosdaq. However, Iconloop CEO Jonghyup Kim denied those rumors.

In January 2020, Icon announced that it would be integrating with Chainlink on a collaborative, interoperable oracle for all blockchains. Oracles are third-party services that provide real-world data to smart contracts, such as live price information. Through the integration of price oracles with Chainlink, Icon was able to launch its token staking, yield and swap platform ICONFi.

In September 2020, Icon announced its plans to launch Icon 2.0, an upgrade on its existing loopchain with interoperability features to support decentralized finance (DeFi) services.