When Ethereum was launched on July 30, 2015, he decided to be more than just cryptocurrency. He aimed to extend the limits of blockchain technology itself. While Bitcoin has become digital gold, Ethereum continued a larger vision: being a decentralized “global computer” – programmable, expandable and open.
A decade later, Ethereum transformed finance, culture and software. Along the way, it was faced with existential crises, volatile markets and ferocious internal debates. Now he stands at the dawn of a new era – one who can see him fully adopted by traditional finance.
Ethereum has seen an increase in the past two months while the project has crossed the 10 -year milestone, with the bouncing ETH Sound Price, reaching $ 3,800 in July, after being around $ 1,500 in April.
In recent months, the ecosystem has experienced a new wave of use cases, including the tokenization and growth of stablescoin, and the network has also benefited from the trend of companies holding ETH in their treasury bills, not only for long -term value, but to gain yield.
The white paper that started everything
Ethereum was born from a white paper written by Vitalik Buterin, then 19 years old, in 2014, a dropout from the Canadian college and a passionate Bitcoin enthusiast who, inspired by the limitations he saw in Bitcoin, envisaged a more versatile blockchain platform. The network was put online a year later, supported by the new Ethereum (EF) foundation, which was responsible for supporting development and spreading the mission of Ethereum.
But Ethereum’s honeymoon phase did not last. In 2016, the now Infamous Hack Dao Hack almost exploded the network when a vulnerability of an intelligent contract allowed an attacker to siphon more than 3.6 million ETH, or about $ 13.5 billion at today’s prices. To cancel the damage, Ethereum has carried out a controversial hard fork, effectively creating a new version of the blockchain.
At the time, many saw that the decision to crush it broke out with the fundamental principle of blockchain according to which transactions are immutable and that the system is without permission, which raises that human intervention could undermine confidence in the neutrality of the protocol. After the split, the original chain continued as Ethereum Classic.
“We have shown that we made the right decision, instead of letting the attacker keep all this ether at the time, and it would have been a burden for us all this time, trying to obtain adoption and [focus on building] Different things, ”said Hudson Jameson, the former protocol community leading the Ethereum Foundation, in an interview with Coindesk.
The Boom ICO and the Road to Fusion
After the DAO episode, Ethereum entered an explosive growth period. ICO Boom 2017 startups saw billions using ERC-20 tokens. Protocols DEFI like Makedao, Compound and Uniswap have emerged, allowing loans, loans and exchanges without authorization.
But Ethereum’s success has exposed its weaknesses. The congestion of the network and high gas costs have revealed an urgent need for scalability. The developers began to work on the most ambitious upgrade of Ethereum: the transition of proof of work to proof of proof in what would become known as the merger. The effort, which started in 2017, culminated on September 15, 2022. The transition reduced Ethereum energy consumption by more than 90% and opened the door to jalitude.
At the same time, layer 2 rolls such as arbitrum, optimism and zksync have started to take shape. These networks offered faster and cheaper transactions while taking advantage of Ethereum security.
“The moment when we realized that the layers really take off and that we started to see equal or outdated L2 transaction volumes those of Mainnet and at much lower costs,” was a turning point, said Paul Brody, world leader in blockchain at Ey.
Today, layer 2 solutions bring in major players. Robinhood announced that he was building his own Rollup using Arbitrum Tech, while Deutsche Bank plans to take advantage of Zkync for his blockchain initiatives.
A crisis at the Ethereum Foundation?
After an exhausting bear market in 2022-2023, the crypto began recovering. Bitcoin exceeded $ 100,000. Solana, offering faster transactions and fees, has become a viable competitor, attracting more new developers in its ecosystem than Ethereum, as well as capital and beating. Meanwhile, Ether delayed, going to a four -year hollow against Bitcoin in December 2024, which aroused worries among some in the community about the future of Ethereum, and if the EF was enough to direct development in the right direction.
As things started to bubble in crisis, the basic figures of the foundation began to wonder where the ecosystem was heading. “How can we make sure that it is the best thing according to many standards? How is he winning? How is it the thing that is adopted,” said Danny Ryan, a former basic developer of the Ethereum Foundation and merger architect.
Ryan Codirige now Ethealalize, who helps institutions to integrate into Ethereum.
In February 2025, in response to growing criticism, the EF restructured its leadership, appointing two new co-executive directors to direct the ecosystem into a new phase, with efforts to be more transparent in its communication and its priorities, in particular by being more proactive in the community.
Despite its influence, the EF has long resisted to become the final authority over the future of Ethereum. “So the Foundation certainly never wanted to be a critical actor, but wanted to do a lot of good for Ethereum,” said Tomasz Stańczak, one of the new co-executive directors, in an interview with Coindesk.
“The Foundation still wants to be central, but the times are that everyone can be a little stronger. It is therefore quite very well that the foundations are as visible as possible, as punchy as possible, because it knows that others can play the same thing,” added Stéńczak.
The foundation remains focused on the catalyst for progress, whether it is to put Ethereum or support institutional adoption. “This is exactly what we need to coordinate more quickly,” Stańczak said.
“It is therefore time to make sure that we provide these Ethereum values and have an impact thanks to institutional integrations. The foundation should focus on it now [meaning institutional onboarding]When necessary, ”added Stéńczak.
Regulatory clarity and institutional impulse
One of the largest catalysts of the recent impetus of Ethereum came with the approval of the ETH ETH ETH in July 2024. Managed by financial giants inherited like Blackrock or Fidelity, the Spot-Etfs, which now there is nine in the United States, marked a national moment, has opened access to investors to adhere to ETH without having to own the affect.
But getting there was not easy. Under the former president of the SEC, Gary Gensler, many in the industry thought that regulatory hostility stifled cryptographic innovation.
The landscape changed spectacularly after the 2024 US elections, which inaugurated a more friendly crypto congress and administration. Since then, with the adoption of the law on genius (and before it), the stabbed and the real tokenized assets have flooded Ethereum, cementing its place in the heart of the adoption of institutional cryptography.
“Now, with a much healthier regulatory environment in the United States, companies can become serious on this subject, and manufacturers can become serious about this kind of thing without worrying about a note of love of the President Gensler,” said Joseph Lubin, CEO of Ansensys and co-founder of Ethereum. “Thus, applications and users and transactions will come.”
More recently, a new trend has emerged with companies by focusing on cash strategies that include the purchase of ETH, not only to keep the assets, but for jalitude and to generate a yield. The change indicates that some seek to take advantage of the Ethereum ignition system to win rewards and integrate into a wider challenge ecosystem.
Sharplink Gaming (SBET), the cryptographic cash company listed at NASDAQ, led by Ethereum, co -founder and CEO of Ansensys, Joseph Lubin, has become one of the main companies in this area.
“I think that DEFI will be the first case of major use, and you can call it real assets and stabblecoins and loans, loans, etc. DEFI will be the first real case of use that companies and financial institutions adopt,” said Lubin. “If you pay attention to what is happening with these ether cash companies like, like ours, Sbet, it is clear that Wall Street pays attention.”
What is the next step for Ethereum?
Ethereum is now at a inflection point, because some of the largest financial institutions in the world enter crypto via the rails of Ethereum. “Five years ago, many of these banks and financial institutions understood or began to understand the value of a programmable environment in particular native,” said Ryan d’Etherealize. “Although there were people who understood the value of public blockchains in banks, there is still a little more than a year now, they were like” we get it, but we cannot touch it “, given the regulatory uncertainty.”
Institutions now on board, next year will probably define its long -term relevance. The developers focus on both the user experience and the scalability, not only via the expansion of the layer-2, but also by improvements in the base layer itself.
“We have solved most of our problems, which does not mean that we have the end state. There are still tons of improvements, and we need much more scalability,” said Lubin.
Beyond the technique, the Commissioners of Ethereum also envisage its role in a rapidly evolving world.
“When we think of the next 10 years of Ethereum, I think the questions we [the EF] request [are] “What are the biggest fears of centralization for humanity, on a global scale today, and above all it is AI,” Stańczak told the EF.
“It is now time to arouse with people a certain excitation to be significant and to have big moon moon projects around something that is really, really important for the next 10 years.”
The interviews with this piece were modified by brevity and clarity.
Read more: the institutions lead the “return” of Ethereum
