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The Partnership That Never Was: LINE denies partnership with PARAMETA and ICON ($ICX), now known as SODAX ($SODA)

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by COINS NEWS 7 Views

Disclaimer: I was the lead comms specialist for ICON Foundation for a few years since starting early 2018. However, I did not realize nor was I aware of any of the things during my tenure there. You can read the full article here.

TL;DR: I recently saws an article on coindesk about how ICON ($ICX) rebranded to SODAX ($SODA), and I thought this would be a good time to bring some awareness to the project so that people can make better informed decisions and investments.

ICON ($ICX) / SODAX ($SODA) and PARAMETA have claimed for years that LINE (Japan's massive messaging app) uses their blockchain technology. I emailed LINE directly to verify. LINE responded clearly stating they have "absolutely no relationship" with ICON or PARAMETA.

It appears ICON used this alleged partnership to legitimize their project, attract investors, raise funds, and establish other "empty" partnerships. Additionally, ICON heavily promoted Blue Whale Foundation--a project that abruptly ceased operations after raising over $21 million USD during its ICO--with ICON/PARAMETA executives serving as the team advisors and getting compensated possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars for it. Their recent rebranding to SODAX could be an attempt to distance themselves from these controversies and false promises.

Classic blockchain marketing tactic: claim big partnerships that don't materialize into anything, then rebrand when people catch on.

  • No actual collaboration with LINE: In October 2024, LINE’s blockchain team explicitly denied any relationship with ICON/PARAMETA, stating that assertions about loopchain integration into LINE’s LINK Chain are false.

  • Strong marketing, weak follow-through: ICON and PARAMETA promoted multiple supposed partnerships (Samsung, SK Planet, Smilegate, etc.) and projects (like Blue Whale Foundation), which never materialized and/or raised millions of dollars only to cease operations overnight.

  • Big-picture concern: These claims likely inflated perceived legitimacy--potentially misleading investors and the broader community.

  • Strategic rebranding? ICON’s shift to SODAX ($SODA) appears timed to distract from past controversies, raising questions about motives behind the transformation.

  • Call for transparency: The article urges ICON/SODAX and PARAMETA to provide verifiable evidence or issue clarifications to address these serious allegations. My calls for transparency and bringing awareness to the /r/helloicon community, a subreddit that I managed during its peak years, resulted in me getting permanently banned for "FUD" despite the fact that nothing I stated was false, deceptive, nor misleading. It was honestly a little surprising and sad to see a subreddit community that I helped grow and have it be an open forum for people to share genuine concerns and criticisms become into a dead subreddit where practically every user is banned (excluding the occasional posters that are just mods or paid p-reps).

You can read a more in-depth breakdown that I wrote in this article here.

I am not a medium partner, the article is not monetized, and I only shared the information on Medium because I simply did not have another platform to share my story and experience.

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