Yes it is a cryptocurrency just like bitcoin and eth but it is privacy focused. For example, on the bitcoin blockchain, your transactions and who sent btc to who and how much did you send is open to the public. With monero, there is still a blockchain but nothing is open to the public. They don’t know who sent monero to who or how much you sent. All they know is a transaction was made and thats it. If i made any mistakes hopefully someone will correct me but I hope this gave you the basic understanding of how it works.