Ethereum Turns 10: Key Things to Know About the World’s Second-Biggest Cryptocurrency

Ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, completed its 10th anniversary today. It was launched by Vitalik Buterin and a team of developers on June 30 in 2015. It introduced smart contracts, enabling decentralised applications and powering innovations across decentralised finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and Web 3.0 over the past decade.

Key Things to Know About Ethereum Journey

After its launch in 2015, Ethereum laid the foundation for decentralised apps and tokens by introducing smart contracts to the Blockchain community.

However, Ethereum faced its first major setback, the decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) hack in just a year, in 2016, when over $50 million worth of Ethereum was stolen as a result of a smart contract flaw. The community started a contentious hard split to retrieve the lost money which led to the creation of two distinct chains: Ethereum (ETH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC).

The year 2017 saw Ethereum at the centre of the initial coin offering (ICO) boom. Start-ups raised funds by issuing tokens on the Ethereum network, pushing ETH’s price above $700. But in 2018, the bubble burst. Ethereum’s price crashed by over 90 per cent, dropping from an all-time high of $1,396 in January 2018 to around $86 by the year-end, according to Coinmarketcap. Scalability concerns and network congestion became major challenges.

Ethereum concentrated on reconstruction between 2019 and 2020. Early indications of the adoption of DeFi were observed in the ecosystem with protocols, such as MakerDAO, Compound and Uniswap gained traction. Also, developers started preparing Ethereum 2.0 with the goal of resolving energy and performance concerns.

Finally, Ethereum’s breakout came in 2021. The NFT boom and DeFi surge pushed it to a new all-time high of $4,878 in November 2021. Finally in 2022, The Merge replaced proof-of-work with proof-of-stake and upgrade slashed Ethereum’s energy consumption by over 99 per cent and marked the start of a more sustainable, scalable Ethereum network.

Following the merger, Ethereum saw a quiet year, as it saw little price movement and cautious investor sentiment in 2023. Ethereum briefly exceeded $4,000 in the early months of 2024 due to market boost. In 2025, Ethereum is currently trading around $3,800, which indicates a steady trend as the Genius Act provides some legislative clarification regarding cryptocurrencies in the US.

Edul Patel, CEO of Mudrex said that as the worldwide popularity and use cases of Ethereum rises, its utility and dependability will set it apart from other digital assets.

He says: “Ethereum now powers smart contracts, NFTs, Stablecoins and DeFi, processing nearly 2 million transactions daily and reaching a 12-month high of 670,000 active addresses. With nil downtime in over a decade, its growing adoption and reliability could help it eventually flip Bitcoin. If Bitcoin is digital gold, Ethereum is the digital oil that keeps the ecosystem running.

What’s Ahead for Ethereum

As Ethereum continues to evolve post-merge, experts say the coming years could be transformational for the network.

Patel adds: “With the current momentum, Ethereum is set to create new highs. Institutional appetite is rising, Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have seen over $5 billion in net inflows, and reserves on centralised exchanges are falling, all pointing to a potential supply crunch. As more firms build Ethereum treasuries, investors should consider Ethereum from a long-term store of value perspective to build real wealth.”

Raj Karkara, COO of ZebPay also highlights Ethereum’s growing impact in India, adding that Ethereum is enabling a rapidly evolving crypto ecosystem in India, empowering developers and NFT innovation. “With upgrades like danksharding and Pectra, the coming decade will redefine how value, trust, and technology intersect,” he says.