Ethereum ETH
Rank #2 by market cap
Last 7 days
▲1.00%What Ethereum is
Ethereum is a programmable blockchain launched in 2015 by Vitalik Buterin and a group of co-founders. Where Bitcoin tracks who owns what, Ethereum runs code: smart contracts that execute exactly as written, which is what most stablecoins, lending protocols and NFTs are actually built on.
Every action costs a fee paid in ETH, called gas, which compensates the network for the computation. In 2022 Ethereum replaced mining with proof of stake, cutting its energy use by well over 99% and allowing holders to stake ETH to help secure the network and earn a yield.
The honest limitations are real. Fees rise sharply when the network is busy, which pushed most activity onto layer-2 rollups and left the user experience fragmented across chains. Smart contracts are only as good as their code, and billions have been lost to bugs and exploits. Staking rewards are not risk-free income — they are payment for taking on real technical and market risk.
About the asset
Ethereum has no token contract — it is the native asset of its own chain, not a token issued on someone else's.
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Ethereum data synced 6m ago from CoinGecko. Figures shown in USD. This page is market information, not financial advice — and nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell ETH.