Internet Computer (ICP) is the hottest new cryptocurrency available for purchase and has already become one of the most valuable coins on the market just days after its release.

Internet Computer (ICP), which just launched on Monday, is currently #8 on CoinMarketCap's chart of the most valuable cryptocurrencies based on market cap, or the total amount of coins multiplied by each coin's current market price. As of this writing, ICP's market cap is approximately $37 billion. This means that this new coin is on par with cryptos with longer histories, such as Ripple's XRP and Cardano (ADA).

The blockchain nonprofit foundation DFINITY has ambitious plans for its Internet computer distributed network, promising nothing less than the reinvention of the Web as we know it. Crypto investors seem to be jumping on the hype train, not wanting to miss the opportunity to buy coins that could potentially multiply in value several times over.

ICP also shares the top 10 with heavyweights like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), which are worth almost nothing. Bitcoin's market cap is over $1 trillion, while Ethereum's market cap is now just under $500 billion after breaking that barrier for the first time today (and hitting an all-time high at the same time).

Also noteworthy, though not enough to take ICP out of the top 10, is the significant drop in the price of the internet computer today; according to CoinDesk, ICP opened at 249 USDT (tether, equivalent to $249) on Monday, and in wildly volatile early trading, it reached a price of $737.20. It hit a high of $20 and landed a little above $400 by the end of the day. As of this writing, the price has fallen about 17% in the past 24 hours to $300. Nevertheless, according to CoinMarketCap, the majority of the market is currently down, with popular cryptocurrencies falling by double digits (like Dogecoin, down nearly 10%). However, none of the top 10 have fallen as significantly as Internet Computer, which is less established than other coins and may be experiencing increased volatility.

What exactly is Internet Computer? It is a decentralized, blockchain-driven protocol intended to make web publishing faster and easier without the influence of powerful, centralized technology companies. This means that developers and creators will be able to launch apps and services that run on distributed nodes around the world, and appear to be less susceptible to censorship and surveillance from traditional web hosts and platforms. Every node participating in the network will act as a kind of Internet server. It is like the Internet being hosted by something like BitTorrent.

Future improvements to the infrastructure promise to make the network operate at "web speed," and the platform is designed to support the development of social media clients, distributed financial (DeFi) services, and other distributed apps (dapps).

Aside from being a speculative investment, ICP coins are used within the Internet computing ecosystem for network governance, to reward node operators, and as "fuel for computation," as described by Messari, a crypto research resource The dapps running on Internet computers are used as "fuel for computation". ICP coins are not required to use services running on the platform, as dapps running on Internet Computer are paid for by developers, not users. [Internet Computer (ICP) is already available on major cryptocurrency exchanges like Coinbase and Binance, and given the team's bold aims and the coin's quick entry into the upper echelon of current crypto projects, it will be one to keep an eye on.