Ethereum's Decade Journey: A Review of the Top Ten Key Moments

Since its official launch on July 30, 2015, Ethereum has gone through ten years. From an experimental project, it has developed into an infrastructure that supports thousands of applications, connects tens of thousands of developers, and leads cryptocurrency innovation. Ethereum has undergone a long and tortuous development process.

On the occasion of the tenth anniversary, let's review ten key moments in the development of Ethereum, including technological breakthroughs, policy games, ecological development, and market turning points.

1. 2013-2014: White Paper Release and Crowdfunding Launch

In November 2013, 19-year-old Vitalik Buterin released the first draft of the Ethereum white paper, proposing the idea of a "world computer." He then quickly assembled a founding team of eight members, including Charles Hoskinson, who would later become the founder of Cardano, and Gavin Wood, the founder of Polkadot.

In January 2014, Vitalik publicly introduced Ethereum for the first time at the North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami, USA, causing a huge response. Soon after, Gavin Wood released the yellow paper known as the "Ethereum Technical Bible."

On July 22, 2014, Ethereum launched a 42-day crowdfunding campaign, raising over 30,000 Bitcoins, approximately 18 million USD, and issued 72 million ETH at an average price of 0.3 USD.

2. 2015: Mainnet Launch, Genesis Block Created

In March 2015, the official Ethereum blog announced a plan for four development phases: Frontier, Homestead, Metropolis, and Serenity.

On July 30, 2015, the Frontier phase officially launched, the Ethereum mainnet went live and produced the genesis block, with a block reward of 5 ETH.

3. 2016: The DAO Incident and Hard Fork

In June 2016, The DAO project suffered a hacking attack, resulting in approximately 3.64 million ETH being stolen. This incident sparked intense controversy within the community, ultimately leading to a hard fork to recover the stolen funds. On July 20, Ethereum implemented the hard fork at block height 1920000, splitting into two chains: Ethereum and Ethereum Classic.

4. 2017: The ICO Craze and Regulatory Storm

In 2017, ICO projects on Ethereum sprung up like mushrooms after rain, with total financing reaching several billion dollars throughout the year. The price of ETH surged from about $8 at the beginning of the year to over $700 by the end. However, this was followed by bubbles, fraud, and a regulatory storm. On September 4, seven ministries in China jointly issued a document to halt ICOs, and the U.S. SEC also intensified its investigations into non-compliant projects.

5. 2020-2021: The Explosion of DeFi and NFTs

In mid-2020, DeFi and NFTs experienced explosive growth on Ethereum. The liquidity mining mechanism launched by Compound ignited a craze for yield farming, with the total locked value in DeFi skyrocketing from less than $1 billion at the beginning of 2020 to over $200 billion by the end of 2021.

At the same time, NFTs have evolved from a niche in crypto art to a global cultural phenomenon. CryptoPunks, BAYC, and others have become star assets, with Beeple's NFT work selling for a staggering $69 million, and trading platforms like OpenSea seeing monthly transaction volumes surge to billions of dollars.

6. 2020: Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain Launched

On December 1, 2020, the first phase of Ethereum 2.0 - the Beacon Chain officially went live, marking the beginning of the transition to the PoS consensus mechanism. As of July 2025, over 35.3 million ETH are in a staked state, accounting for 29.17% of the circulating supply, with more than 1.09 million active validators.

7. 2022: The Merge completed, fully transitioning to PoS

On September 15, 2022, Ethereum completed the merger of its mainnet and beacon chain, fully transitioning from a PoW to a PoS mechanism. This change reduced the network's energy consumption by over 99% while significantly decreasing the issuance of new ETH.

8. 2024: Ethereum Spot ETF Approved

On July 23, 2024, the U.S. SEC approved the Ethereum spot ETF applications of several institutions. The first products approved for listing come from well-known institutions such as Grayscale, Bitwise, and iShares. As of now, the total net asset value of Ethereum spot ETFs has exceeded $20.66 billion, accounting for approximately 4.64% of Ethereum's total market capitalization.

9. 2024: Cancun Upgrade Implementation

On March 13, 2024, Ethereum completed the Cancun (Dencun) upgrade. Its core improvement EIP-4844 introduced the concept of blobs (data blocks), paving the way for full data sharding, significantly reducing L2 transaction costs and enhancing network scalability.

10. 2025: The Rise of the Ethereum Treasury Arms Race

Since 2025, more and more institutions have been using ETH as a strategic asset reserve. As of July 28, the total amount of strategic ETH reserves has reached 2.32 million, valued at approximately $8.98 billion, accounting for 1.92% of the circulating supply. Among them, BitMine and SharpLink Gaming hold 566,800 and 360,000 ETH respectively, becoming the two largest Ethereum treasury institutions.

In the ten-year journey, Ethereum has evolved from an idealistic experiment into the world's largest smart contract platform and blockchain infrastructure. In the future, it will continue to drive innovation in blockchain technology, paving the way for the widespread adoption of decentralized applications.