Ethereum 

ETH Price

What is Ethereum (ETH)?

Ethereum is the foundational Layer-1 smart-contract blockchain, launched in July 2015. Ethereum serves as the primary settlement layer for DeFi, NFTs, stablecoins, and Layer-2 rollups. ETH is the network's native coin, used to pay on-chain gas fees and to stake as validator collateral. Ethereum switched from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake in the Merge on 15 September 2022, and now runs entirely on validators rather than miners.

Who created Ethereum and who controls it now?

Ethereum was proposed by Vitalik Buterin in a 2013 whitepaper and launched at its genesis block on 30 July 2015. Ethereum has eight recognized co-founders, including Gavin Wood and Joseph Lubin, alongside Buterin. Ethereum has no CEO, owner, or single controlling party — the network is governed by its community of validators, with the non-profit Ethereum Foundation providing support rather than control. The decentralized validator set means no founder or entity can unilaterally change Ethereum's rules or shut the network down.

What is Ethereum's total and circulating supply?

Ethereum has more than 120 million ETH in circulation, with circulating and total supply effectively equal (per DropsTab data). Ethereum has no fixed maximum supply — unlike Bitcoin's 21 million cap, the protocol sets no hard ceiling. ETH supply instead expands or contracts based on validator issuance and transaction-fee burning. The absence of a cap means ETH can turn mildly inflationary during sustained low-activity periods.

Why does Ethereum have no maximum supply, and is ETH inflationary or deflationary?

Ethereum issues new ETH to reward validators, so no hard cap exists — Ethereum's supply is governed by the balance between issuance and burning rather than a fixed limit. Under Proof-of-Stake, Ethereum mints roughly 1,600–1,700 ETH daily, down about 90% from the ~13,000 ETH per day issued under Proof-of-Work. EIP-1559, live since August 2021, permanently burns the base fee of every transaction. ETH turns net deflationary when transaction demand pushes burn above issuance, and mildly inflationary when network activity is low.

How does Ethereum staking work?

Ethereum staking lets holders lock ETH as collateral to validate transactions and earn protocol rewards, replacing the energy-intensive mining used before the 2022 Merge. Nearly a third of all ETH supply is now staked, removing that share from liquid circulation. The Shapella upgrade in April 2023 enabled validators to withdraw staked ETH, with a protocol exit queue rate-limiting withdrawals to prevent supply shocks. Staking concentration among a few large providers and custodians remains a centralization risk for the network.

Who funded Ethereum and what was the 2014 ICO price?

Ethereum raised funding through a single public ICO in 2014, with no venture-capital rounds and no private investor allocations. Per DropsTab fundraising data, the crowdsale sold 60 million ETH at an ICO price of $0.311, raising $18.66 million and accounting for 83.33% of the genesis supply. The sale used a No Lock Up distribution, so buyers received liquid ETH immediately. The absence of locked VC allocations means Ethereum carries no concentrated unlock sell-pressure risk common to modern tokens.

Which exchanges can you trade ETH on — CEX or DEX?

ETH trades across more than 200 spot pairs and over 60 derivative markets tracked by DropsTab, spanning both centralized and decentralized venues. Centralized perpetual-futures markets carry the largest share of ETH volume, well above spot trading. On-chain, Uniswap V3 and V4 are the dominant decentralized automated market makers for ETH. Liquidity is deep across both spot and derivatives, so ETH faces negligible liquidity risk compared with thin-float tokens.

Is Ethereum a coin, a token, or a stablecoin?

Ethereum (ETH) is a coin, not a token — ETH is native to its own Layer-1 blockchain rather than issued on another chain's infrastructure. ETH is not a stablecoin: ETH price floats freely against the US dollar and is not pegged to any reserve asset. ETH functions as the gas and staking asset of the Ethereum network. Stablecoins and most DeFi tokens are built on top of Ethereum but remain distinct from ETH itself.