Ethereum
Rank #1 by TVL HealthyL1EVMPoSEthereumETHEIP155EIP1559MainnetThe network, launched , is a decentralized platform for smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps). It runs on the EVM virtual machine and, after transitioning to Proof-of-Stake consensus in September 2022, uses the PoS mechanism to secure the network. The native currency is ETH , required for paying transaction fees (gas) and staking. The project was conceived by Vitalik Buterin in late 2013 and published in a whitepaper in November 2013. A public crowdsale was held from July to September 2014, raising 31,500 BTC (~$18.3 million) in exchange for 60 million ETH at an average price of about $0.31 per ETH. The eight co-founders are: Vitalik Buterin , Anthony Di Iorio (funding), Charles Hoskinson (brief CEO, later founded IOHK and Cardano ), Mihai Alisie (Bitcoin Magazine, legal entity), Joseph Lubin (ex-Goldman Sachs, founded ConsenSys), Gavin Wood (yellow paper, Solidity, first testnet, later founded Polkadot ), Jeffrey Wilcke (Geth), and Amir Chetrit (early involvement). The project is organized through Ethereum Switzerland GmbH (Zug, February 2014) and the non-profit Ethereum Foundation (Stiftung Ethereum), which distributes grants via the Ecosystem Support Program. Key milestones: mainnet launch (proof-of-work); the DAO incident in June 2016 (3.6 million ETH lost), leading to a hard fork on July 20, 2016, and the creation of Ethereum Classic ; the transition to Proof-of-Stake (The Merge) on September 15, 2022; activation of the Pectra upgrade on May 7, 2025 (EIP-7702 for account abstraction, EIP-7251 - increasing the maximum validator balance from 32 to 2048 ETH, doubling blob throughput); the Fusaka upgrade on December 3, 2025 (PeerDAS - expanding the number of blobs from 6 to 48, increasing the block gas limit from 45 million to 150 million); the expected Glamsterdam upgrade in the first half of 2026. The network competes with Solana (modular architecture using L2 rollups versus monolithic) and other L1s such as Avalanche and BNB Smart Chain. Technical Architecture Ethereum is an L1 blockchain that uses the EVM virtual machine (EVM) to execute smart contracts. The consensus is PoS (Proof-of-Stake, implemented via the Beacon Chain since September 2022). Consensus The network transitioned to PoS on September 15, 2022. Validators ( 1,284,256 ) stake a minimum of 32 ETH to participate in block creation. After Pectra, the maximum effective validator balance was increased from 32 to 2048 ETH (EIP-7251). Clients are divided into execution clients (Geth, Nethermind, Besu, Erigon) and consensus clients (Prysm, Lighthouse, Teku, Nimbus). Performance The average block time is 12 s , and the average fee is $0.012323 . After Fusaka, the number of blob objects per block was expanded from 6 to 48, and the gas limit was increased to 150 million. The network uses a modular approach: execution is offloaded to L2 rollups ( Arbitrum , Optimism , Base ), while L1 handles settlement and data availability. Native Currency The main cryptocurrency of the network is ETH (ether). It is used to pay for gas (transaction and smart contract computation fees), as collateral in staking (validators lock ETH), and as the base unit of value in the ecosystem. ETH issuance before The Merge was determined by proof-of-work; after the transition to PoS, issuance was significantly reduced, and a portion of fees is burned (EIP-1559). Maximum issuance is not capped, but the burning mechanism can lead to deflation during periods of high activity. Ecosystem and dApps The total value locked (TVL) is $280.88B , ranking 1 among all blockchains. The daily number of transactions is — , and unique active addresses are — . Leading protocols: decentralized exchanges - Uniswap , Curve, Balancer; lending - Aave , Compound, Spark Protocol; liquid staking - Lido and Rocket Pool; perpetual futures - Synthetix and GMX; NFT marketplaces - OpenSea and Blur. Stablecoins: USDT (Tether), USDC (Circle), DAI (MakerDAO), PYUSD (PayPal), USDe (Ethena, a synthetic dollar with delta hedging, circulating supply >$5 billion by early 2026). Incentive programs: EigenLayer conducted an airdrop of 113 million EIGEN tokens to restakers (Season 1, May 2024) and Season 2 (September 2024). The Ethereum Foundation, through the Ecosystem Support Program, allocates millions of dollars in grants annually. Security and Incidents The most significant incident was the The DAO hack on June 18, 2016 - a re-entrancy vulnerability allowed an attacker to drain 3.6 million ETH (~$50-70 million at the time). The community decided on a hard fork on July 20, 2016 (block 1,920,000) to return the funds, leading to the creation of the Ethereum Classic chain. No other base protocol exploits requiring chain-level intervention have occurred. On May 11 and 12, 2023, the network experienced brief finality losses (25 minutes and about an hour) due to client diversity issues, though blocks continued to be produced. In 2016, a denial-of-service attack targeted Geth nodes, mitigated by the availability of alternative Parity clients. Regulatory actions: On June 18, 2024, the SEC closed its investigation into Ethereum 2.0, declining to classify ETH as a security. On June 28, 2024, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Consensys, accusing MetaMask Swaps and Staking of unlicensed broker activity and offering unregistered securities (Lido and Rocket Pool). The lawsuit was dismissed on February 27, 2025. Spot ETH ETFs launched in the US on July 23, 2024; options trading on them was approved in April 2025. Related Individuals The network was created by a group of eight co-founders. The most well-known are: Vitalik Buterin (born January 31, 1994, in Kolomna, Russia; emigrated to Toronto at age 6) - author of the Ethereum idea, wrote the whitepaper in November 2013. Received a Thiel Fellowship ($100,000), left the University of Waterloo. Co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine (with Mihai Alisie ). The only original co-founder still active in core protocol development through the Ethereum Foundation. Gavin Wood - British computer scientist, joined in early 2014, wrote the yellow paper with the EVM specification, developed the Solidity language and the first testnet. Later founded the Web3 Foundation and the Polkadot blockchain. Joseph Lubin - former Goldman Sachs employee, provided early funding and founded ConsenSys (2014), the largest development studio and incubator for Ethereum-based projects. Charles Hoskinson - brief CEO of the early structure, left the project and founded IOHK and Cardano. Jeffrey Wilcke - developer of Geth (Go execution client), the most widely used Ethereum client. Anthony Di Iorio - entrepreneur from Toronto, secured initial funding and organized the Miami meeting where the project expanded its team. Mihai Alisie - Romanian-Canadian, co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine, assisted with registering the Swiss legal entity and served as Vice President of the Ethereum Foundation during its formative stage. Amir Chetrit - participated in the first group of five founders in December 2013, contributed to coordination, then stepped away. Organizations: the now-defunct Ethereum Switzerland GmbH (EthSuisse, registered in Zug in February 2014, liquidated in 2018) and the non-profit Ethereum Foundation (Stiftung Ethereum, also in Zug). Related companies: ConsenSys (Joseph Lubin), Web3 Foundation (Gavin Wood), IOHK (Charles Hoskinson). Potential Ethereum retains the largest developer community in the blockchain industry, supported by ETHGlobal hackathons and Ecosystem Support Program grants. Its modular architecture with Layer 2 (Arbitrum, Optimism , Base ) allows scaling without sacrificing L1 decentralization. Institutional adoption is growing: spot ETH ETFs in the US, tokenization of real-world assets (BlackRock BUIDL with AUM >$2 billion, Franklin Templeton), and usage by Visa and JPMorgan. The development of restaking through EigenLayer opens new cryptoeconomic primitives. The upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade (2026) will continue to expand throughput. Risks [Identified by Finkonkurs AI Analytics System] Technical risks: incomplete validator decentralization - Lido's dominance in staking could lead to censorship; finality loss incidents in 2023 highlighted client diversity vulnerabilities. Competitive pressure: Solana attracts some activity with higher throughput and lower fees; other L1s (Avalanche, BNB Smart Chain, Sui) also compete. Regulatory risks: although the SEC closed its investigation into ETH, the lawsuit against Consensys (MetaMask) set a precedent, and the future regulation of decentralized applications remains uncertain. Tokenomic risks: debates about L2 fee cannibalization could reduce L1 revenue and the value of ETH.
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| # | App | Cat. | TVL | 7d Δ | Users 24h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | CEX | $68.42B | +0.10% | — |
| 2 |  | Liquid Staking | $21.10B | -3.14% | — |
| 3 |  | Staking Pool | $17.13B | -0.05% | — |
| 4 |  | CEX | $14.84B | -1.89% | — |
| 5 |  | Lending | $11.51B | +5.25% | — |
| 6 |  | Restaking | $8.38B | -9.68% | — |
| 7 |  | Liquid Staking | $8.10B | -0.14% | — |
| 8 |  | CEX | $7.92B | +1.42% | — |
Validator Distribution
Per-validator stake share, Nakamoto coefficient and concentration metrics.
Network Roadmap
Upcoming upgrades, hard forks and governance proposals for this network.
Bridge Flows
Real-time inflow, outflow and net bridge volume across all connected chains.
RPC details
Tokens on this network
View all| # | Name | Price | 24h |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | $62.57K | −1.30% |
| 2 |  | $1.85K | −1.40% |
| 3 |  | $0.9992 | +0.00% |
| 4 |  | $581.73 | −0.40% |
| 5 |  | $0.9996 | +0.00% |
| 6 |  | $1.07 | −1.30% |
| 7 |  | $72.55 | −1.30% |
| 8 |  | $0.3259 | −0.50% |
| 9 |  | $1.00 | −3.10% |
| 10 |  | $52.26 | −0.20% |
| 11 |  | $0.0694 | −1.40% |
| 12 |  | $1.00 | +0.00% |
Activities
News
View allEthereum Price Prediction for August as ETF and Staking Inflows Rebound
The Market Periodical4 min readAnalyst Names Circle, Coinbase and Ethereum as Top Long-Term Crypto Investments
Cryptofrontnews4 min readRobinhood’s Q2 Revenue Hits Record $1.31B as Prediction Markets Fuel 10x Surge in Event Contracts
CryptoPotato4 min readAboutEthereum
OverviewThe network, launched , is a decentralized platform for smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps). It runs on the EVM virtual machine and, after transitioning to Proof-of-Stake consensus in September 2022, uses the PoS mechanism to secure the network. The native currency is ETH, required for paying transaction fees (gas) and staking.
The project was conceived by Vitalik Buterin in late 2013 and published in a whitepaper in November 2013. A public crowdsale was held from July to September 2014, raising 31,500 BTC (~$18.3 million) in exchange for 60 million ETH at an average price of about $0.31 per ETH. The eight co-founders are: Vitalik Buterin, Anthony Di Iorio (funding), Charles Hoskinson (brief CEO, later founded IOHK and Cardano), Mihai Alisie (Bitcoin Magazine, legal entity), Joseph Lubin (ex-Goldman Sachs, founded ConsenSys), Gavin Wood (yellow paper, Solidity, first testnet, later founded Polkadot), Jeffrey Wilcke (Geth), and Amir Chetrit (early involvement). The project is organized through Ethereum Switzerland GmbH (Zug, February 2014) and the non-profit Ethereum Foundation (Stiftung Ethereum), which distributes grants via the Ecosystem Support Program.
Key milestones: mainnet launch (proof-of-work); the DAO incident in June 2016 (3.6 million ETH lost), leading to a hard fork on July 20, 2016, and the creation of Ethereum Classic; the transition to Proof-of-Stake (The Merge) on September 15, 2022; activation of the Pectra upgrade on May 7, 2025 (EIP-7702 for account abstraction, EIP-7251 - increasing the maximum validator balance from 32 to 2048 ETH, doubling blob throughput); the Fusaka upgrade on December 3, 2025 (PeerDAS - expanding the number of blobs from 6 to 48, increasing the block gas limit from 45 million to 150 million); the expected Glamsterdam upgrade in the first half of 2026. The network competes with Solana (modular architecture using L2 rollups versus monolithic) and other L1s such as Avalanche and BNB Smart Chain.
Technical Architecture
Ethereum is an L1 blockchain that uses the EVM virtual machine (EVM) to execute smart contracts. The consensus is PoS (Proof-of-Stake, implemented via the Beacon Chain since September 2022).
Consensus
The network transitioned to PoS on September 15, 2022. Validators (1,284,256) stake a minimum of 32 ETH to participate in block creation. After Pectra, the maximum effective validator balance was increased from 32 to 2048 ETH (EIP-7251). Clients are divided into execution clients (Geth, Nethermind, Besu, Erigon) and consensus clients (Prysm, Lighthouse, Teku, Nimbus).
Performance
The average block time is 12 s, and the average fee is $0.012323. After Fusaka, the number of blob objects per block was expanded from 6 to 48, and the gas limit was increased to 150 million. The network uses a modular approach: execution is offloaded to L2 rollups (Arbitrum, Optimism, Base), while L1 handles settlement and data availability.
Native Currency
The main cryptocurrency of the network is ETH (ether). It is used to pay for gas (transaction and smart contract computation fees), as collateral in staking (validators lock ETH), and as the base unit of value in the ecosystem. ETH issuance before The Merge was determined by proof-of-work; after the transition to PoS, issuance was significantly reduced, and a portion of fees is burned (EIP-1559). Maximum issuance is not capped, but the burning mechanism can lead to deflation during periods of high activity.
Ecosystem and dApps
The total value locked (TVL) is $280.88B, ranking 1 among all blockchains. The daily number of transactions is —, and unique active addresses are —.
Leading protocols: decentralized exchanges - Uniswap, Curve, Balancer; lending - Aave, Compound, Spark Protocol; liquid staking - Lido and Rocket Pool; perpetual futures - Synthetix and GMX; NFT marketplaces - OpenSea and Blur. Stablecoins: USDT (Tether), USDC (Circle), DAI (MakerDAO), PYUSD (PayPal), USDe (Ethena, a synthetic dollar with delta hedging, circulating supply >$5 billion by early 2026).
Incentive programs: EigenLayer conducted an airdrop of 113 million EIGEN tokens to restakers (Season 1, May 2024) and Season 2 (September 2024). The Ethereum Foundation, through the Ecosystem Support Program, allocates millions of dollars in grants annually.
Security and Incidents
The most significant incident was the The DAO hack on June 18, 2016 - a re-entrancy vulnerability allowed an attacker to drain 3.6 million ETH (~$50-70 million at the time). The community decided on a hard fork on July 20, 2016 (block 1,920,000) to return the funds, leading to the creation of the Ethereum Classic chain. No other base protocol exploits requiring chain-level intervention have occurred. On May 11 and 12, 2023, the network experienced brief finality losses (25 minutes and about an hour) due to client diversity issues, though blocks continued to be produced. In 2016, a denial-of-service attack targeted Geth nodes, mitigated by the availability of alternative Parity clients.
Regulatory actions: On June 18, 2024, the SEC closed its investigation into Ethereum 2.0, declining to classify ETH as a security. On June 28, 2024, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Consensys, accusing MetaMask Swaps and Staking of unlicensed broker activity and offering unregistered securities (Lido and Rocket Pool). The lawsuit was dismissed on February 27, 2025. Spot ETH ETFs launched in the US on July 23, 2024; options trading on them was approved in April 2025.
Related Individuals
The network was created by a group of eight co-founders. The most well-known are:
- Vitalik Buterin (born January 31, 1994, in Kolomna, Russia; emigrated to Toronto at age 6) - author of the Ethereum idea, wrote the whitepaper in November 2013. Received a Thiel Fellowship ($100,000), left the University of Waterloo. Co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine (with Mihai Alisie). The only original co-founder still active in core protocol development through the Ethereum Foundation.
- Gavin Wood - British computer scientist, joined in early 2014, wrote the yellow paper with the EVM specification, developed the Solidity language and the first testnet. Later founded the Web3 Foundation and the Polkadot blockchain.
- Joseph Lubin - former Goldman Sachs employee, provided early funding and founded ConsenSys (2014), the largest development studio and incubator for Ethereum-based projects.
- Charles Hoskinson - brief CEO of the early structure, left the project and founded IOHK and Cardano.
- Jeffrey Wilcke - developer of Geth (Go execution client), the most widely used Ethereum client.
- Anthony Di Iorio - entrepreneur from Toronto, secured initial funding and organized the Miami meeting where the project expanded its team.
- Mihai Alisie - Romanian-Canadian, co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine, assisted with registering the Swiss legal entity and served as Vice President of the Ethereum Foundation during its formative stage.
- Amir Chetrit - participated in the first group of five founders in December 2013, contributed to coordination, then stepped away.
Organizations: the now-defunct Ethereum Switzerland GmbH (EthSuisse, registered in Zug in February 2014, liquidated in 2018) and the non-profit Ethereum Foundation (Stiftung Ethereum, also in Zug). Related companies: ConsenSys (Joseph Lubin), Web3 Foundation (Gavin Wood), IOHK (Charles Hoskinson).
Potential
Ethereum retains the largest developer community in the blockchain industry, supported by ETHGlobal hackathons and Ecosystem Support Program grants. Its modular architecture with Layer 2 (Arbitrum, Optimism, Base) allows scaling without sacrificing L1 decentralization. Institutional adoption is growing: spot ETH ETFs in the US, tokenization of real-world assets (BlackRock BUIDL with AUM >$2 billion, Franklin Templeton), and usage by Visa and JPMorgan. The development of restaking through EigenLayer opens new cryptoeconomic primitives. The upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade (2026) will continue to expand throughput.
Risks [Identified by Finkonkurs AI Analytics System]
Technical risks: incomplete validator decentralization - Lido's dominance in staking could lead to censorship; finality loss incidents in 2023 highlighted client diversity vulnerabilities. Competitive pressure: Solana attracts some activity with higher throughput and lower fees; other L1s (Avalanche, BNB Smart Chain, Sui) also compete. Regulatory risks: although the SEC closed its investigation into ETH, the lawsuit against Consensys (MetaMask) set a precedent, and the future regulation of decentralized applications remains uncertain. Tokenomic risks: debates about L2 fee cannibalization could reduce L1 revenue and the value of ETH.
FAQ
What is Ethereum?
Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain platform launched on , which executes smart contracts via the EVM virtual machine. The network operates on the first layer (L1) and uses PoS consensus, having transitioned to it in September 2022. Ethereum serves as the foundation for thousands of decentralized applications, from DeFi to NFTs.
What is the network's native coin?
The native coin is Ether (ETH), which is used to pay transaction fees and computational resources on the network. It also serves as the basis for staking in PoS consensus and is a key asset in the DeFi ecosystem.
What is the network's TVL?
The total value locked (TVL) in the protocol is $280.88B, ranking it 1 among all blockchains. This metric reflects the amount of funds deposited in smart contracts of decentralized applications.
How fast and cheap is the network?
The network processes about — transactions per second with an average block time of 12 s. The average transaction fee is $0.012323, which can vary depending on network congestion.
How secure is the network?
Security is ensured by PoS consensus with 1,284,256 validators. The network has not experienced full outages since launch, but on May 11, 2023, a 25-minute loss of finality occurred due to client diversity issues. The largest exploit was the The DAO hack in June 2016, when 3.6 million ETH were stolen due to a reentrancy vulnerability, leading to a hard fork and the creation of Ethereum Classic.
How does Ethereum differ from other networks?
Ethereum uses a modular scaling strategy, relying on second-layer rollups for transaction execution, while the first layer handles settlement and data availability. This contrasts with the monolithic architecture of Solana, which aims for high throughput on a single layer. The network also competes with other L1s such as Avalanche and BNB Smart Chain.