What Ethereum is
Ethereum (ETH) is a proof-of-stake Layer-1 blockchain, currently ranked 3rd by market capitalization among the assets we track. Ethereum is its own settlement layer. Smart contracts run on top of it, fees are paid in ETH, and the security model rests on validators bonding the token rather than burning energy to mine it.
Ethereum (ETH) is a decentralized platform that enables developers to build and deploy smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps) using blockchain technology. It facilitates peer-to-peer transactions and applications without a central authority.
How consensus and the token economy connect
Validators propose and attest to blocks; honest behavior earns rewards, dishonest behavior burns the stake. That feedback loop is what lets Ethereum finalize transactions without miners.
Under the hood, ETH secures its ledger with Proof of Stake, built on the Ethash algorithm.
Background & fundamentals
Ethereum first went live in 2015, giving it roughly 11 years of on-chain price history to draw on. Ethereum operates under a semi-centralized structure, which concentrates protocol decisions in an identifiable issuer or foundation. A documented core team of 12 contributors is listed publicly, a depth of disclosed staffing many long-tail tokens lack.
Its codebase is open-source, meaning the implementation can be audited rather than taken on trust. The project publishes a whitepaper documenting its original design, which is worth reading before sizing any position in ETH. CoinPaprika classifies the project's development status as "Working product".
In sector terms it is most often filed under Token Issuance, Decentralized Applications, and Smart Contracts.
Where Ethereum sits in the market
With ETH near $1,575, Ethereum carries a market capitalization of $192.72B. Around $7.46B changes hands across exchanges in a typical 24-hour window. That is a turnover of about 3.87% of the float — a healthy level of activity for an asset this size.
Ethereum carries no fixed maximum supply; issuance follows a programmatic schedule rather than a hard cap. The token is roughly -68% under its record of $4,946 — a meaningful but not catastrophic drawdown. Measured from its all-time low of $507.33, ETH is up +210%.
What the price history shows
Across timeframes, ETH shows 24-hour -2.83%, 7-day -4.45%, 30-day -14.05%, 1-year -23.49%. Within its stored 365-day daily history, ETH mounted a low-to-high run of roughly 117% at its strongest stretch.
Volatility profile
Recent action puts Ethereum in the Moderate-volatility band — it shows the kind of price movement common in mid-cap crypto assets — meaningful but not unusual. Over the last 30 days the move totals -14.05%, a useful input for stop placement and position sizing.
How to evaluate Ethereum
For an asset of this type, three lenses matter most:
- Real usage — active addresses, fees paid, and total value locked — does on-chain demand justify the valuation?
- Staking economics — the share of ETH staked, the yield, and unlock/queue dynamics that govern liquid supply.
- Ecosystem depth — how many applications and how much liquidity have chosen Ethereum over competing Layer-1s.
This page pulls live market data, on-chain stats where available, exchange-by-exchange volume, and our forecast model into one view so you can work through those questions in a single place. None of it is investment advice — it is a structured starting point for your own research.
