Ethereum Turns Eight! See How the Crypto Industry Reacts
The second-largest cryptocurrency, ETH, has a market capitalization of $226.38 billion
Former Ethereum Foundation CCO, Stephan Tual, published a blog post on July 30, 2015, formally announcing the network’s launch.
“The concept of a censorship-proof ‘world computer’ that everyone can program, spending only for what they utilize and nothing more,” he wrote in his post.
After eight years, Ethereum and its native currency Ether have evolved to become the world’s second-largest crypto asset. Ethereum has approximately 20,000 monthly active developers and 147 million engagements, with a market valuation of $225 billion and thousands of smart contracts implemented on its network.
Today marks the end of eight years since the Ethereum network went live. The crypto community shows immense interest in celebrating the platform’s birthday and sharing its achievements through the years.
The Crypto Industry is All Hyped Up for Ethereum
Ryan Sean Adams, crypto investor and co-founder of Bankless has mentioned that Ethereum has $400 billion in secured value, $3.6 billion in yearly income, and 17.8 million blocks of digital assets.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao used the network’s eighth birthday to think back, tweeting on X about how Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin lived with him in Tokyo in the months building up to the official introduction of Ethereum.
Udi Wertheimer, a reformed Bitcoiner, greeted the event with a sense of humor, pointing to the Ethereum platform as his “favorite Bitcoin sidechain.”
Journey Of Ethereum
Ethereum was developed by renowned individuals, including Buterin, Charles Hoskinson, Gavin Wood, Joseph Lubin, and Anthony Di Iorio.
As an open-source software platform, Ethereum was founded on the basics of blockchain technology. The primary advantage of Ethereum is that it allows programmers to build and deploy decentralized apps. Ethereum allows developers to create a variety of apps.
By enabling developers to establish smart contracts and design new blockchain-based apps, Ethereum contributed to the late-2017 initial coin offering frenzy and the 2020 “DeFi summer” surge of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and innovation.
On Nov. 10, 2021, a little over a year after DeFi summer, Ether reached an all-time high of $4,878. At the time of writing, one ETH was worth $1,865.
In the meantime, crypto supporters watched the effective execution of the upgrade to Merge on September 15, 2022, which saw the network switch from a proof-of-work consensus process to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, lowering the use of energy and releasing staking incentives for validators and stakeholders.
Price History Of Ethereum
ETHs have been sold for $0.31 per coin, raising more than $16 million for the initiative. The yearly price hike of ether is around 4.5%, according to the project’s official website. Since the initial Ethereum block was mined, block rewards have been lowered twice.
From the token’s initial debut date in 2014 through March 2017, the price ranged between $0.70 to $21. In May, when the 2017 bull crypto market began to start, the price of ETH was $100 for the first time. From there, ether soared to a high of $414 in June 2017 before falling again.
The whole crypto market was seeing massive purchasing pressure, which drove practically every crypto coin to new highs. By January 2018, the price of ETH had reached $1,418 before plummeting precipitously.
Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization (following Bitcoin), took approximately three years to retest its previous all-time high price. Between February and May 2021, the price of ETH tripled in value, reaching an all-time high of $4,379. Ether’s value had fallen in the first half of 2022.
Closing Thoughts
Many people remembered ETH’s 8th birthday and hoped that once again it will rise in value during the Bitcoin halving.
Let’s see how the next biggest historic event impacts the second-largest cryptocurrency.
