As the Ethereum birthday approaches, the crypto world is marking a historic milestone. ETH has surged past $3,800, setting a new high for 2025. Since its ICO in 2015, the price of Ethereum has increased more than 12,000x, with a market capitalization now exceeding $455 billion. The network remains the undisputed leader in decentralized finance, stablecoins, and on-chain user activity.
The Ethereum Birthday That Changed the Internet
On July 30, 2015, the first Ethereum block — the genesis block — was mined. That moment laid the foundation for a programmable blockchain that would radically redefine what money, ownership, and applications could look like online.
Born from the vision of Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum introduced the concept of a world computer, where smart contracts automate agreements, assets are issued and exchanged without intermediaries, and open innovation thrives beyond centralized platforms.
A Decade of Innovation
Since that first Ethereum birthday, the network has undergone a remarkable evolution:
- 2016: The DAO hack and the hard fork split Ethereum into ETH and ETC.
- 2017: The ICO boom took off on Ethereum, creating thousands of tokens and new fundraising models.
- 2020: “DeFi Summer” proved Ethereum’s potential as an open financial system.
- 2022: Ethereum transitioned to Proof of Stake during The Merge, cutting energy use by over 99%.
- 2023–2025: A period of unprecedented refinement and scale.
Over the past three years, Ethereum has matured into a modular and scalable protocol:
- Layer 2 rollups like Arbitrum, Optimism, zkSync, and Base gained mass adoption, drastically reducing fees and offloading congestion from the mainnet.
- The Shanghai/Capella upgrade unlocked full ETH withdrawals, increasing validator flexibility and long-term network security.
- The Dencun upgrade brought proto-danksharding (EIP-4844), enabling blob data and reducing transaction costs across L2 ecosystems.
- The 2025 Pectra upgrade — combining the Prague and Electra tracks — introduced account abstraction (EIP-3074), improved validator UX, and laid the groundwork for future upgrades like Verkle trees.
Ethereum has transformed into a powerful settlement layer underpinning a multi-chain, modular internet of applications.
Ethereum Birthday at the Center of Web3
As we celebrate the 10th Ethereum birthday, it’s clear the network has become far more than just a blockchain. Ethereum now powers DeFi, NFTs, stablecoins, DAOs, identity systems, and tokenized real-world assets. It has enabled entire industries to emerge — open-source, borderless, and permissionless by design.
Through bull markets, crashes, forks, and breakthroughs, Ethereum has remained the most credible, decentralized, and forward-looking network in the space.
Looking Ahead
The next phase of Ethereum’s roadmap includes full danksharding, statelessness, and improved state storage via Verkle trees — all aimed at scaling Ethereum to billions of users without compromising security or decentralization.
Ethereum at 10 is not a finish line, but a foundation for what’s next.
Build What’s Next on a Network That Lasts
If you’re building in Web3, your infrastructure choices matter. Whether you’re deploying smart contracts or scaling high-throughput dApps — you need reliability at every level.
NOWNodes delivers high-performance Ethereum access trusted by leading protocols and teams across the ecosystem. With global endpoints, real-time APIs, and deep support for Layer 2, it’s built for builders who expect more.
Build without limits. Power your Ethereum journey with NOWNodes.
