Internet Computer (ICP)

Internet Computer (ICP) is the native cryptocurrency of the Internet Computer, a blockchain run by the Swiss non-profit DFINITY Foundation that aims to host whole websites, applications and data on-chain, a goal shared with much of the Web3 movement, instead of on conventional cloud servers. ICP is used to govern the network and is converted into "cycles", the units that pay for computation and storage. It was launched in May 2021.

The token and the network share a name, but they are different things: the Internet Computer is the platform of linked subnet blockchains, and ICP is the asset that votes on its rules and fuels it. Unlike on most chains, users of applications on the Internet Computer usually pay nothing; the developers who deploy the applications pay for them.

Think of an ordinary website as a shop that rents space in a big company's warehouse, such as a cloud provider. The shop depends on that one landlord, who can raise the rent, switch off the lights or be hacked. The Internet Computer tries to replace the landlord with a co-operative: independent data centres around the world run the same software, check each other's work and together host the shop.

To pay its share of the electricity, the shop buys prepaid tokens, called cycles, by converting ICP. Those cycles are used up as the shop runs, much like a prepaid electricity meter. Customers walk in for free. People who lock up ICP, a form of staking, get a vote on how the co-operative is run and earn a reward for voting.

Dominic Williams founded DFINITY in 2016, and the foundation, based in Zurich, raised money from token sales and investors from 2017 onwards. The network went live on 10 May 2021 and ICP was listed on major exchanges the same day, briefly ranking among the largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Its price then fell by more than 90 percent within weeks. A June 2021 report by Arkham Intelligence, covered by The New York Times, alleged heavy selling by insiders; DFINITY rejected the claims and later sued the newspaper for defamation. A US class action claiming ICP had been sold as an unregistered security was dismissed in March 2025 as filed too late. In mid-2025 DFINITY unveiled Caffeine, a service that builds and deploys applications on the network from plain-language prompts, and in January 2026 it published a plan, called Mission 70, to cut new ICP issuance sharply.

The Internet Computer is made of many subnets, each a blockchain run by independent node machines, which together act as one network. Applications run as canisters, smart contracts that hold both code and data and can serve web pages directly to a browser. A technique called chain-key cryptography lets the whole network sign with a single public key, so apps can verify results quickly and hold assets on other chains. It underpins ckBTC, a token backed one-for-one by Bitcoin (BTC) held directly by the network rather than by a custodian, unlike most wrapped tokens. The network is governed by the Network Nervous System, an on-chain DAO in which ICP locked into "neurons" votes on upgrades, new subnets and node providers.

Developers buy cycles by burning ICP. The price of cycles is pegged to the Special Drawing Rights (XDR) unit of the International Monetary Fund, so the cost of computing stays stable even when ICP's price moves. One trillion cycles always cost one XDR:

• $C$ is the number of cycles created.
• $I$ is the amount of ICP converted, which is burned.
• $P$ is the price of one ICP in XDR at the time of conversion.

If one ICP is worth 2.5 XDR, converting 4 ICP gives $4 \times 2.5 \times 10^{12} = 10 \times 10^{12}$, or 10 trillion cycles, enough to pay for a fixed amount of computation and storage. ICP has no maximum supply: new tokens are minted to reward voting neurons and node providers, while conversion to cycles removes tokens. Mission 70 aims to cut annual minting from about 9.7 percent in January 2026 to about 5.4 percent a year later, alongside new burns linked to network revenue.

• Launch and distribution. The 2021 price collapse, and the large allocations to early backers, DFINITY and its staff, still shape how many investors view the project.
• Inflation. Until burning from use catches up with rewards, net inflation dilutes holders who do not lock their ICP in neurons.
• Influence of DFINITY. The foundation writes most of the software and, critics say, holds enough voting power in the Network Nervous System to limit how decentralized the network really is.
• Adoption. Usage has grown, but hosting decentralized applications on-chain remains a small market next to conventional cloud services and to networks such as the Ethereum Blockchain.

• Internet Computer
• DFINITY Foundation
• Internet Computer documentation: cycles and costs