Ethereum

ETH Launched 2015 source

What this page is: neutral, sourced facts about Ethereum. Every line links where it was checked. 12 facts, 9 from primary sources. Educational, not financial advice.

Live chart

Live chart from TradingView, loaded only when you click. The chart is for viewing only. It is not a signal or advice, and this page shows no other prices.

Ethereum chart

Loads from TradingView only when you click, which then receives your IP address. See our privacy page.

Launch

The introductory paper was published in 2013 by Vitalik Buterin before the project's launch in 2015; Frontier, a live but barebone implementation of Ethereum, went live on Jul 30, 2015. primary source source

Founders and creators

Vitalik Buterin and other co-founders; Ethereum has a total of eight co-founders. secondary source source

Origin story

Funded through an online public crowd sale in the summer of 2014 that raised $18.3 million in Bitcoin. secondary source source

Stated purpose

'A next-generation smart contract and decentralized application platform'. primary source source

Consensus mechanism

Proof of Stake since The Merge; previously Proof of Work. primary source source

Supply model

EIP-1559 introduced a base fee that is burned. primary source source

Main uses today

ETH is used to pay transaction fees (gas) for using the network and its applications, and to secure the Ethereum network through staking. primary source source

Key milestones

London upgrade on Aug. 5, 2021. primary source source
The Merge (switch to proof of stake) took place in September 2022. primary source source
Shapella (Shanghai-Capella) was the update that allowed for staking withdrawals. secondary source source
The Cancun upgrade included EIP-4844, known as Proto-Danksharding, which introduced data "blobs" that enable rollups to post data to Mainnet for a short period of time. primary source source

Notable events and controversies

The DAO hack in 2016 led to a hard fork; the original chain continued as Ethereum Classic. primary source source

Sources & studies

Last checked: 2026-11-04 · Prices, market caps and circulating supply are left out on purpose because they change by the minute. Educational, not financial advice.

Education only, not financial advice. No signals. Backtests are hypothetical: real trading can be worse. Past results don't predict future results.