Parent Company:

ICON is a project of Dayli Financial Group. Dayli used to be called Yello Financial Group and it is an arm of Yello Mobile. Note that theloop is the company that built the underlying blockchain technology. They are also owned by Dayli Financial Group. It appears many Korean companies take this “conglomerate” approach which has made research a bit tricky. In summary, Dayli Financial Group, Icon Foundation, theloop, Yello Financial Group --> all the same company.

Furthermore – Yello Mobile is HUGE. They are one of the largest startups in Korea with a valuation north of $4b. We’re talking about the largest mobile start up in Korea…a start-up that was started by a team that spun off of Kakao, the most popular app in Korea that almost everyone uses (similar to WhatsApp or WeChat in China). Confused yet? Basically, by Korean standards, this is as big as it gets.

I wanted to throw in something I’ve heard one of the ICON Council members say many times in interviews on Youtube. They view blockchain networks akin to cellular networks. There will be many of them, they will be regulated, and there will be incredibly successful regional networks in addition to international networks. ICON is the first blockchain network in Korea focusing on pulling that country towards blockchain adoption. They’re setting up dozens of partnerships and side chains that they’re building themselves for clients with the goal of connecting the entire ecosystem using ICX. This is a BIG vision that, in my opinion, makes a ton of sense. ICON isn’t just saying, “Here’s our network, come use it” – they’re signing up industries and those industries are paying up for their own blockchain networks that will become part of the ICON ecosystem. We haven’t really seen something this “professionalized” in crypto yet, besides perhaps Ripple.

Partnerships/Other:

Announced partnership with Ripple30

Furthermore, SBI (the company that partnered with Ripple to bring Ripple to Asia, (source1), also invested in Yello Mobile, e.g ICON. (Source2.)

27 Financial firms in Korea

Korean Financial Investment Association (source and good article3)

The “Financial Firms” mentioned in the above article are VERY legit. Daishin Securities has close to a $1b USD market cap and 185 employees on Linkedin. Kiwoom’s market cap is well over $1.5b USD. The others also manage billions or hundreds of millions US.

Signed an agreement with Woori (appears to be the second largest bank in Korea) to create something like Tether but for the Korean Won. (source1)

They own Coinone, the second largest crypto exchange in Korea.

They have a partnership with multiple universities including Sogang University (Source)

The university group blockchain project is called U-Coin. Latest tweet5 showing a prototype vending machine at Sogang University. The other side of that vending machine has the ICON logo on it.

Insurance consortium with hospitals and insurance companies: https://www.theloop.co.kr/business

The regulations brewing in Korea are good for ICON. First of all, they got their ICO in and finished before ICOs were banned (similar to NEO in China) and second, they’re doing everything by the book, working with regulators, etc. That’s why the KYC took so long. But remember, this is a long-term GOOD thing for the project. Regulations create moats. Moats keep out the competition.