📜 Ethereum (ETH) Coin History
🚀 Creation
Proposed: 2013 by Vitalik Buterin
Launched: 30 July 2015
Purpose: Not just a coin — a blockchain platform for smart contracts & decentralized apps (DApps)
🪙 Early Days (2015–2016)
Initial price: ~$0.30
Introduced smart contracts (self-executing code on blockchain)
Became popular among developers
📈 First Big Growth (2017)
ICO & crypto boom
Price reached ~$1,400 (Jan 2018)
Ethereum powered most ICO projects
📉 Crash & Recovery (2018–2020)
Market crash dropped ETH below $100
Focus shifted to Ethereum 2.0, scalability, and upgrades
🔥 Major Bull Run (2021)
DeFi & NFT boom
All-Time High: ~$4,878 (Nov 2021)
Ethereum became #1 platform for NFTs & DeFi
⚙️ The Merge (2022)
Ethereum moved from:
❌ Proof of Work (mining)
✅ Proof of Stake (staking)
Reduced energy use by ~99%
Huge milestone in crypto history
📊 Recent Years (2023–2025)
Continuous upgrades (Shanghai, Cancun, scalability)
Strong use in:
DeFi
NFTs
Web3
Layer-2 networks (Arbitrum, Optimism)
💡 Why ETH Is Important
Second biggest crypto after Bitcoin
Backbone of Web3
Used for:
Gas fees
Staking
Smart contracts
NFTs & DeF