Ethereum price (ETH)

What is Ethereum?

Ethereum is a programmable blockchain: rather than only tracking coin balances, it runs smart contracts — code that executes exactly as written — which power stablecoins, lending markets, NFTs, and tokenized assets. Vitalik Buterin proposed it in 2013 to overcome Bitcoin's limited scripting, and today ETH functions both as the network's fuel and as core collateral across decentralized finance, where hundreds of billions of dollars in value settles on Ethereum and its layer-2 networks.

Validators stake 32 ETH to propose and attest to blocks under proof of stake, which replaced mining in the September 2022 Merge and cut energy use by over 99%. EIP-1559, live since August 2021, burns the base fee of every transaction, so net supply depends on network activity. The March 2024 Dencun upgrade added blob space that slashed layer-2 costs, and Pectra in May 2025 raised validator stake limits and improved account abstraction.

Launched on July 30, 2015 by Buterin with co-founders including Gavin Wood and Joseph Lubin, Ethereum weathered the 2016 DAO hack — which split off Ethereum Classic — and enabled the 2017 ICO boom. US spot ETH ETFs began trading in July 2024, with staking features added later, and Ethereum remains the second-largest crypto asset and the dominant settlement layer for stablecoins and rollups such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Coinbase's Base.

What moves the ETH price?

Network activity feeds directly into ETH economics: heavy demand for block space burns more fees, at times making supply deflationary, while quiet periods flip issuance net-positive. DeFi cycles, NFT booms, and stablecoin growth on Ethereum and its layer 2s have each driven sustained rallies, as have staking yields that pull coins out of liquid circulation.

ETF flows since July 2024 added an institutional demand channel, and corporate treasuries such as BitMine and SharpLink began accumulating ETH in 2025. Protocol upgrades cut both ways — Dencun compressed layer-2 fees but shifted revenue away from mainnet — and ETH has tended to trade with higher beta than Bitcoin during both risk-on and risk-off swings.

Ethereum FAQ

What is Ethereum used for?

Running applications: decentralized exchanges, lending protocols, stablecoin transfers, NFTs, and tokenized treasuries all execute on Ethereum or its layer-2 networks. ETH itself pays gas fees, serves as collateral across DeFi, and earns staking rewards of roughly 3% annually for validators who secure the chain.

Does ETH have a maximum supply?

No hard cap exists. New ETH goes to stakers — under 1% of supply annually — while EIP-1559 burns base fees, so total supply can shrink or grow with usage. Since the 2022 Merge it has hovered near 120 million ETH, far more predictable than during the proof-of-work mining era.

Is Ethereum a good investment in 2026?

Ethereum offers the deepest developer ecosystem, ETF access, and real fee revenue, but it faces competition from Solana, value leakage to its own layer 2s, and open scaling questions. Its returns have lagged Bitcoin in some recent stretches. Weigh those trade-offs yourself; this is not financial advice and no recommendation is made.

Where can I buy ETH?

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