In the cryptocurrency asset market, the ICP project indeed left a deep impression—not because of ecological prosperity, but because of its peculiar staking rules. Over the past four years, these rules have been heavily criticized, and now the DFINITY Foundation has finally made adjustments in the Mission70 tokenomics white paper. Is this wave of reform an active upgrade of the project or a forced market compromise? It’s worth a close look.

Let's first review the previous "ridiculous" aspects of ICP staking rules: the longest lock-up period was up to 8 years, with the shortest at 6 months, combined with an annualized return of over 13% to attract long-term stakers. Among mainstream projects, such settings are indeed rare. In comparison, leading blockchains like Ethereum and Solana adopt liquid staking schemes, allowing users to deposit and withdraw at any time, or with lock-up periods not exceeding 1 week. This huge difference directly affects market participation: retail investors are deterred by high thresholds, institutional investors fear being locked in long-term, resulting in low staking participation, while token sell pressure has not decreased. ICP’s price has fallen over 99% from its all-time high, and the project ecosystem has faced severe challenges.

The essence of this reform is actually very straightforward—align with market conventions and listen to actual user needs. Saying it’s a "compromise" might not be accurate; it’s more like a "survival instinct." The focus involves two main improvements: first, significantly shortening the lock-up period to make staking more liquid; second, optimizing the incentive mechanism design to give long-term holders more reasonable return expectations. Although these adjustments seem passive, they precisely reflect the project team’s attention to market feedback.

Whether this move can turn things around depends on the subsequent development of the ecosystem. The reform rules are just the first step; the real test lies in whether market confidence can be rebuilt and whether more developers and users can be attracted to participate.