Last year, members of the Internet Computer community pledged nearly $80 million worth of ICP tokens in support of decentralizing protocols within the ecosystem. The DFINITY Foundation, a contributor to the Internet Computer network, recently released its 2023 protocol ecosystem report, which revealed that the community had committed over 6.5 million ICP tokens to decentralization efforts.
The pledge was made through the Internet Computer’s Service Nervous System (SNS) framework, which enables protocols to become decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Several ICP projects and dapps received funding for decentralization through the SNS, including OpenChat, a decentralized messenger; Dragginz, a metaverse platform; Kinic, a blockchain search engine; Hot or Not, a “Web3 TikTok” platform; Ghost, the first ICP memecoin; Modclub, a decentralized verification-as-a-service platform; BOOM DAO, an on-chain gaming platform; and Catalyze, a social dapp.
The success of the SNS framework has been praised for its innovative technology stack and numerous network integrations, according to Lomesh Dutta, Vice President of Growth at DFINITY. The DFINITY Foundation also reported significant growth in blockchain gaming activity on the Internet Computer, attributing it to low transfer fees and high scalability.
In addition, the foundation distributed $6.25 million in ecosystem grants to 239 projects across 41 countries in 2023 to support the growth of the ICP ecosystem. The report also highlighted a 121% year-over-year increase in overall network usage on ICP, indicating consistent ecosystem-wide growth.
Decentralized finance on ICP has experienced steady growth, with the total value locked increasing by 24% to $27 million since January 1, according to DefiLlama.
ICP prices have recently surged following the network’s advancements in artificial intelligence (AI). DFINITY CEO Dominic Williams shared a video on March 22 demonstrating what he claimed to be a world-first: a sophisticated AI running on the blockchain as a smart contract on the Internet Computer. This development has led to a 50% surge in ICP prices, reaching a two-year high of just under $20 on March 26. However, the price remains significantly lower than its all-time high of $700 in May 2021.