ICURY (ICY) Now a Liquid Digital Asset

Since the listing of ICURY on Nocks, a new phase has started for Icecat’s cryptocurrency. The ICY airdrop to NCKS tokenholders took care of sufficient supply among Nock’s active traders and has been effective since the start of the trade on November 5, no day has passed without trade. The trade of the ICY against the EUR also adds a fiat dimension to the ICURY ecosystem, which is only logical for a euro business. Before, the ICURY was only tradable against mainstream cryptos. The highest daily volume on Nocks is thus far 168 euros, not a lot but also not unreasonable given the limited total liquidity of this crypto exchange, where BTC-EUR is naturally the most important trading pair.

Liquid markets

Another observation is that liquidity on one exchange, helps liquidity on another exchange. Since trade commenced on Nocks, also the ICY-BTC market on Txbit became more liquid. To some level that is explained by arbitration: tokens were cheaper on Txbit than on Nocks, and some traders seem to have taken advantage of that. But, it is probably also a matter of perception: the ICURY proved itself as a liquid token, and thus some more crypto traders start to pay attention.

Imperfect Markets

Till now, the ICURY is mostly trading in a bandwidth of +/-20% around 0.025 euro, whereby the rate against the euro is somewhat better than the rate against bitcoin. The markets are clearly imperfect still. Further, the volatility of ICURY against the bitcoin, which itself is also more volatile than the euro, is also much higher: mood swings of +/-30% a day are not uncommon on Txbit. A strange fact is finally that the ICY can simultaneously move in opposite directions on each exchange. At play is likely the different profiles of traders on Nocks, European citizens with a Euro account, versus the trading profile of Txbit users, who are mostly non-European crypto-to-crypto traders.

Redeeming ICY

More than just a marketing gimmick like redeeming ICY against an Icecat cap, Icecat is now also investigating options to accept ICURY as well as mainstream cryptos, as payment methods for all its services, whereby a payment provider is converting cryptos real-time to euro. Euro conversion would be required to make sure that the financial performance of the company wouldn’t be impaired by accepting crypto payments.

Further, the ICURY team continues to investigate other crypto exchanges that would possibly add more liquidity to ICY and exposure to strategic markets. For example, trade against USD pegged stablecoins, or highly developed crypto markets in East-Asia, would help develop the ICURY ecosystem further.

Finally, it’s worthwhile to study whether Icecat could or should create a fund that could add more liquidity to ICY markets, and potentially long term could play a role in stabilizing the token. As stablecoins might need approval, for example by the SEC in the US when it’s made available to US residents, it’s not something that will happen overnight.

Martijn Hoogeveen

Founder and CEO of Icecat NV. Investor. Ph.D.