Ethereum celebrated its 10-year anniversary on Wednesday, with renewed institutional momentum fueling hopes that Ether (ETH) could challenge its all-time high that was set in November 2021.
Over the past decade, Ethereum has become the largest decentralized finance (DeFi) blockchain, with nearly $85 billion in total value locked (TVL) at the time of writing.
Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s co-founder, circulated an early version of the white paper in 2013. The project raised $18.3 million in its initial coin offering (ICO) and officially launched in 2015 as a blockchain for smart contracts. Its cryptocurrency, Ether, now ranks as the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization after Bitcoin (BTC).
Here’s a look back into Ethereum’s first decade, featuring the ICO boom, DeFi summer and the rise and fall of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
2015-2016: The birth of Ethereum and The DAO hack
In April 2016, The DAO launched as a decentralized venture capital project designed to let tokenholders vote on how the entity invests its funds. But it didn’t last long — it suffered an exploit worth around $60 million in June 2016.
Throughout the decade, several Ethereum-based projects fell victim to cyberattacks. But this one is remembered as a critical bifurcation in Ethereum’s history, as developers and the community made a controversial decision to hard fork the blockchain and reverse the network to the moment before the theft.
This led to a permanent chain split. The new chain that came out of the fork continued with Ethereum’s brand and majority support. A smaller group remained on the original blockchain, which is now known as Ethereum Classic.
2017-2018: Ethereum explodes with the ICO boom
Ethereum was the go-to platform for ICOs, thanks to the rise of the ERC-20 token standard, which made it possible to launch token projects without the need to develop a new blockchain. Some projects were genuine. They used Ethereum’s ICO as a launchpad to migrate to their own networks (though plenty of them were useless.)
Ether surged from under $10 at the start of 2017 to a then-all-time high of about $1,450 by January 2018. Bitcoin also reached a new ceiling above $19,000 during the ICO craze.
The speculation wasn’t limited to ICOs. Ethereum also hosted CryptoKitties, a viral NFT game where players collect and breed cartoon cats. Its success in late 2017 clogged the Ethereum network.
In early 2018, regulators began to crack down on unregistered securities offerings. Throughout the year, the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed lawsuits and issued subpoenas to hunt down many ICOs accused of violating securities laws.
Most ICO-funded projects failed to deliver, and prices collapsed. By December 2018, ETH had fallen to around $85.
2019-2020: DeFi Summer scorches Ethereum
Ether spent much of 2019 hovering between $100 and $300, a period now remembered as the first crypto winter. Developers focused on infrastructure, while projects such as MakerDAO, Compound and Uniswap built the foundation for a new kind of financial system based on smart contracts instead of banks.
By mid-2020, Ethereum had transformed from a post-ICO wasteland into the base layer of DeFi. Compound launched its governance token, COMP (COMP), and kicked off a yield farming frenzy that rewarded users for locking assets in DeFi protocols. Ethereum’s network usage spiked, gas fees soared and ETH followed suit, climbing to over $750 by the end of the year.
2021: Ethereum meets superstars through NFTs
Ethereum’s next breakout came through art and memes. In 2021, NFTs captured the cultural zeitgeist as projects like CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club turned pixelated avatars into mainstream status symbols. In March 2021, digital artist Beeple sold an NFT artwork for $69 million at Christie’s.
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OpenSea, the leading NFT marketplace at the time, saw a surge in trading volume and briefly became one of the highest-earning decentralized apps (DApps) on Ethereum. Celebrities, brands and influencers piled in, with Ethereum taking center stage in pop culture.
ETH reached an all-time high of $4,891 in November. But the flood of activity exposed Ethereum’s limits. Gas fees became unaffordable for casual users and turned transactions into luxury events.
2022: Ethereum merges as crypto crashes
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