Old coin ICP suddenly surges? Don't worry, there's actually a new explanation this time.

ICP tokens doubled in value over the past week, driving a collective rally in legacy projects like storage infrastructure. Recently, Web3 has once again challenged the narrative of underlying internet infrastructure, forming a new storyline. (Background: The dance between ICP and AI: ushering in the decentralized AI era) (Additional context: Eight projects that received star VC funding but fell short in the market reality—ICP, DYM, FLOW, etc.) Starting November 1st, the long-silent Internet Computer (IC) token ICP began a rally. According to Bitget data, ICP’s price rose from around $2.94 to a peak of about $8.6, nearly doubling in 7 days.

With ICP’s resurgence, many Web3 storage infrastructure projects also experienced a small spring, with FIL, AR, STORJ, and others recording notable gains since yesterday. For legacy projects like ICP and FIL, sudden price increases are often seen as the final liquidity drain before major capital exits, but this rally driven by ICP is not entirely without precedent.

Internet Computer rides the AI fast lane. The core reason for ICP’s recent rise is likely related to the Web3 AI payment narrative sparked by x402. After numerous explorations, the market has found that blockchain-based and stablecoin solutions in AI payments outperform current payment methods and may be the only better alternative. Consequently, the market’s focus shifted to “who is more Web3?” in selecting targets.

As various chains seek solutions supporting x402 and gasless payments, IC, with its underlying design better suited to these needs yet often overlooked, has become the “chosen one.” Back in 2021, IC was considered an “overly advanced” project. Strictly speaking, IC isn’t just a pure blockchain; its architecture resembles a “new decentralized network” inspired by blockchain data structures, potentially serving as a lower-level infrastructure layer for blockchains. According to zCloak Network founder, IC essentially incorporates all current blockchain tracks at the foundational level: “Ethereum and other public chains are ledgers; ICP is the true world computer.”

What truly ignited enthusiasm might not only be that IC is the best infrastructure for Web3 + AI, but also its latest flagship product, caffeine—a tool that allows users to generate and deploy DApps directly through AI chat without any development effort. Yesterday afternoon, user Haotian shared views on how caffeine could bring more changes to AI payments, further fueling positive sentiment in the Chinese market.

Of course, Haotian also noted that there’s still some distance from real implementation. However, after x402 and AI became hot investment targets and their prices cooled, IC—undervalued with rich imagination—naturally became a hot spot for capital chasing new opportunities.

Silent Storage Protocols. The collective rise of storage protocol tokens may not be solely due to the recent AWS outage. I believe it’s more about market confidence in Web3-native infrastructure spilling over from IC into other areas, with storage being the most obvious and high-quality sector.

Setting aside emotions, although most tokens have been underperforming, storage protocols have been quietly making progress.

Firstly, as a typical “peak at launch” case, Filecoin has seen significant developments over the past year. In Q4 last year, Filecoin’s storage utilization increased from 18% to 30%. Its low-cost advantage and continuous improvements in usability have led many enterprises to adopt Filecoin services.

Additionally, this year, new primitives like PDP (Proof of Data Possession) for hot data, F3 (Filecoin Fast Finality) reducing transaction finality from hours to seconds, the EVM-compatible FVM, and ongoing efforts to compete with traditional cloud services via FWS (Filecoin Web Services) have helped Filecoin achieve more real-world applications.

Arweave launched Permaweb 2.0 at the end of last year, storing hot data on the mainnet and cold data in “Arweave-Lake,” reducing storage costs by 38%. This year, Arweave expanded beyond storage with the AO compute network, enabling complex computations like investment strategies, aligning well with Web3 + AI.

Two months ago, zkIPFS launched, turning Arweave nodes into “permanent IPFS with ZKP,” allowing Solidity contracts to read off-chain metadata via zkCID, enabling trustless interoperability between EVM and Arweave. Overall, Arweave has optimized storage costs while leveraging AO and zk suites to open new growth avenues in high concurrency computing and EVM interoperability.

StorJ, while not directly related to blockchain, has been actively promoting adoption. Last year, StorJ acquired GPU computing firm Valdi.ai and file management system developer PetaGene, supporting AI training. In the first half of this year, StorJ promoted Colby Winegar, who joined in 2022, to CEO, further accelerating growth. Additionally, StorJ optimized its tokenomics, introducing buybacks and staking mechanisms.

When blockchain aims to change the world… We must admit that the recent surge in tokens, including privacy coins, triggers fears of a “doomsday chariot” scenario. Unlike past instances, this time, many logical reasons support the rally. The main difference is that the capital chasing hot spots has shifted from project-specific “price stagnation” developments to new targets.

However, risk warnings remain essential. The biggest risk is that we are once again at a point where blockchain is believed to replace certain things. Historically, such overconfidence has marked market peaks. While this time there are some rational filters, I believe these differences are not strong enough to truly “replace” existing systems. Therefore, caution against emotional overexcitement is still necessary.