About Internet Computer (ICP)

So what exactly is the Internet Computer (ICP)?

At its core, ICP is a Layer-1 chain that wants to behave like a decentralized cloud — apps running fully on-chain instead of depending on AWS or whatever hosted backend is popular that year. It’s an ambitious idea, maybe too ambitious at times, but the pitch is simple: make the internet itself programmable.

How is the ICP token split across different groups?

The allocation is broad but surprisingly structured. Seed/Private Sale takes the biggest slice at 24.72%, followed by the DFINITY Foundation at 23.85% and team members at 18%. Early backers hold 9.43%, and then you drop into mid-range buckets: Strategic Round (6.84%), Pre-Sale (4.75%), and the Internet Computer Association (4.26%). Smaller pieces go to partnerships, advisors, early contributors, airdrop participants, and node operators.

What’s the real story behind ICP’s unlocks?

Everything’s unlocked now — that’s the short version. But the pacing mattered: the airdrop and Pre-Sale wrapped up in June 2022, the Strategic Round followed in June 2024, and the big one — Seed/Private Sale — hit 100% on June 11, 2025. Early backers were already liquid at TGE. Sometimes people expect a hidden cliff; there isn’t one left.

Did different groups follow different vesting rules?

Yes, and the differences were pretty wide. Early backers got full liquidity at launch, while Seed and Strategic rounds vested for years. Pre-Sale and the airdrop moved on a much shorter, one-year cadence. If this seems slightly uneven, that’s because it is — ICP’s vesting map grew across multiple eras of its development.

Who backed ICP during fundraising?

This part’s not subtle: a16z anchored three rounds, Polychain came in twice, and names like USV, Sequoia, Multicoin, and CoinFund filled out the rest. Even SV Angel and KR1 show up. It’s one of those cap tables that tells you exactly what era of crypto it came from — heavy venture, deep pockets, and long-horizon bets.

What were the key fundraising rounds?

There were a few distinct chapters. The Seed/Private Sale in early 2017 priced ICP at about $0.0362. The Strategic Round later that year raised $61M at $1.90. And the April 2018 Pre-Sale jumped to $4.57 and brought in $102M. Early backers pre-date the sale structure entirely.

Was the community airdrop meaningful?

It wasn’t huge in percentage terms — 1.25% of supply — but it reached a lot of early users. And because it vested over 12 months, it didn’t behave like a chaotic day-one drop. It ended up seeding governance participation more than trading activity, which is… honestly not a bad outcome for a project that leans so hard into an on-chain DAO.

What about node operators and tiny ecosystem allocations?

They exist, even if the numbers are tiny: node operators at 0.22%, early community/developers at 0.48%, advisors at 2.40%, and a few partnership buckets. These aren’t headline allocations, but they tell you something about how ICP built its early network — a bit fragmented, often practical, occasionally improvised.