Ethereum Celebrates 10 Years: What Has Changed Over the Decade of the Network's Operation
Date: 2025-07-22 Author: Oliver Abernathy Categories: CRYPTO PAYMENTS
In honor of the memorable date, the community released a special NFT called The Torch. This digital "Torch" will pass from hand to hand for ten days, and on July 30, each user will be able to create their own unique celebratory version of the token. According to the creators, this NFT symbolizes all the people and values that shaped the Ethereum ecosystem and will determine its development in the future. The first owner of the token was Joe Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum, and then Audrey Tang, Minister of Digital Technology of Taiwan, took up the baton. Other participants will appear on the official website of the project as the "Torch" is passed.
The founders of Ethereum were Vitalik Buterin, Charles Hoskinson (Cardano), Mihai Alisie (Bitcoin Magazine), Anthony Di Iorio (Decentral), Amir Chetrit, Gavin Wood (Polkadot), Jeffrey Wilcke (Grit Games) and Joe Lubin (Consensys, MetaMask).
The first mention of the Ethereum concept appeared in 2013, when Vitalik Buterin published a technical description of the idea. To finance the development, in 2014, the Ethereum Foundation held an ICO, collecting about 31.6 thousand BTC, which was then equal to $ 18 million. Participants were sold 60 million ETH, another 12 million coins were allocated to the development team and early supporters of the project. At the start, 1 BTC could be exchanged for 2000 ETH, and by the end of the ICO, the rate dropped to 1337 ETH for 1 BTC.
The network launched on July 30 with the generation of the first block, the so-called Genesis Block. Initially, Ethereum worked on the Proof-of-Work algorithm, similar to Bitcoin: users mined coins using mining equipment. However, in 2021, with the transition to Proof-of-Stake after the The Merge update, it became enough to block your ETH coins in a special smart contract to receive income from the network.
Over the years of its existence, the price of ETH has grown tens of thousands of times, reaching a peak of almost $ 4,900 in November 2021. Now Ethereum remains the leader among blockchains for DeFi and NFT projects, second only to Bitcoin in total capitalization - more than $ 455 billion. Thanks to it, solutions such as smart contracts, decentralized exchanges and NFTs have become part of the everyday life of the crypto market.
Ethereum still holds the lead in the DeFi segment: more than 63% of all capital is locked in this network - over $ 103 billion. For comparison, Solana holds only 6.3%, and Bitcoin - about 5.3%. Despite higher fees (the average transaction costs over $ 1.3 versus $ 0.01 in Solana), Ethereum remains the preferred platform for large DeFi and stablecoins. Thus, it was on the Ethereum network that USDT from Tether was first launched - today it accounts for half of the capitalization of all stablecoins ($ 130 billion).
An important step was the emergence of Ethereum-based ETFs. After the launch of the first Bitcoin ETFs in early 2024, Ethereum funds began trading in the summer of the same year. Currently, nine American ETFs manage $ 18.4 billion - a record figure for all time. While other cryptocurrencies await regulatory approval, Ethereum continues to gain ground, taking advantage of the more open crypto market policies under President Donald Trump.
