Ethereum's Ten-Year Journey: From Experiment to Cornerstone

On July 30, 2015, when the block height reached 1028201, a decentralized world computer quietly started in a small office in Berlin. Ten years later, Ethereum has evolved from an experimental project into an important infrastructure that supports thousands of applications, connects tens of thousands of developers, and leads crypto innovation.

At this historic moment, the Ethereum community has launched a special NFT transfer event to honor the developers, users, and ideas that have shaped Ethereum over the past decade. This NFT will ultimately be destroyed to commemorate Ethereum's ten-year journey.

Let's review ten key moments in the development of Ethereum, covering technological breakthroughs, policy challenges, ecological development, and market turning points.

2013-2014: The Concept of Ethereum and Initial Funding

In November 2013, 19-year-old Vitalik Buterin published the first draft of the Ethereum white paper, sharing this idea for the first time through an email titled "Introducing Ethereum: A General Purpose Smart Contract/Decentralized Autonomous Organization Platform." He later recalled: "This draft is the culmination of months of thinking and working in the field of 'Cryptocurrency 2.0.'"

Months after the release of the white paper, Vitalik quickly assembled an eight-person founding team, including Anthony Di Iorio, Charles Hoskinson, Mihai Alisie, Amir Chetrit, Gavin Wood, Joseph Lubin, and Jeffrey Wilcke.

In January 2014, Vitalik officially introduced Ethereum to the public at the North American Bitcoin Conference held in Miami, USA, which caused a huge response. Subsequently, Gavin Wood published the Ethereum Yellow Paper as the technical specification for the Ethereum Virtual Machine, which has been hailed as the "technical bible of Ethereum."

On July 22, 2014, Ethereum launched its initial token issuance, raising over 30,000 Bitcoins in 42 days, equivalent to approximately 18 million USD at that time, with a total issuance of 72 million ETH at an average price of 0.3 USD. The scale of this fundraising also sparked considerable doubt and controversy at the time.

2015: Ethereum Mainnet Launch

In March 2015, the official Ethereum blog systematically announced a plan for four development stages, clarifying the evolution path from underlying technology construction to widespread application: 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.

2016: The DAO Incident and Hard Fork

In June 2016, Ethereum encountered a major security incident. The DAO project raised over 11.5 million ETH (approximately $149 million) in just 28 days. However, due to a code vulnerability, hackers launched an attack on June 17, transferring approximately 3.64 million ETH, which caused the price of Ethereum to plummet by more than 50% that day.

This event sparked intense debate within the community, ultimately resulting in a hard fork to roll back the transactions and recover the stolen funds. On July 20, 2016, Ethereum implemented a hard fork at block height 1920000, resulting in the split between Ethereum and Ethereum Classic.

2017: The Token Issuance Boom and Regulatory Response

In 2017, with the popularity of smart contract platforms, a large number of projects raised funds through token issuance. This model quickly became a sensation, with total financing reaching several billion dollars throughout the year, driving the price of ETH from about $8 at the beginning of the year to over $700 by the end.

However, market bubbles and chaos have also emerged. Global regulatory agencies have begun to closely monitor and take corrective measures. On September 4, 2017, seven ministries in China jointly issued a document, clearly stating that token issuance is an illegal financing activity and requiring projects to stop immediately and return funds to investors. The U.S. SEC has also classified some tokens as securities, emphasizing that related projects must comply with securities law regulations.

Under the pressure of strict policies, a large number of projects and platforms have been forced to shut down, funds have rapidly withdrawn, and the market has entered a cooling period. Nevertheless, this wave has, to some extent, established Ethereum as the core platform for decentralized applications and smart contracts.

2020-2021: The Explosion of DeFi and NFTs

From 2020 to 2021, the Ethereum ecosystem experienced explosive growth. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) rapidly emerged, pushing blockchain technology into the mainstream and establishing Ethereum's position as the central hub of crypto infrastructure.

The rise of DeFi began in the first half of 2020, when the liquidity mining mechanism launched by Compound sparked a craze for yield farming. Various protocols flourished, and the total locked value in DeFi skyrocketed from less than $1 billion at the beginning of 2020 to over $200 billion by the end of 2021. However, security incidents and risks also increased.

NFTs experienced an explosion in 2021, evolving from niche art to a global cultural phenomenon. Projects like CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club have seen their prices reach new highs, and Beeple's NFT artwork sold for $69 million. Traditional brands have rushed into the NFT space, while GameFi projects have combined NFTs with blockchain gaming, driving the Play to Earn craze.

2020: Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain Launched

On December 1, 2020, the first phase of the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade—the Beacon Chain—was officially launched, marking the beginning of the transition to the Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. The Beacon Chain, as a core component of the Ethereum 2.0 architecture, is responsible for managing validators, coordinating consensus, and laying the foundation for future sharding mechanisms.

As of July 2025, over 35.3 million ETH are staked, accounting for 29.17% of the circulating supply, with more than 1.09 million active validators, highlighting the network's security and user participation.

2022: Ethereum Fully Transitioned to PoS

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

Vitalik stated: "We have officially confirmed that the Ethereum merge has been completed, marking an important moment for the Ethereum ecosystem. Everyone who contributed to the merge should feel very proud today."

However, this transformation has also impacted the original group of miners. Some miners have chosen to switch to other PoW projects, while others have exited the mining industry or shifted to fields such as AI and gaming.

2024: Ethereum Spot ETF Approved

On July 23, 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officially approved multiple applications for Ethereum spot ETFs. The first products approved for listing come from several well-known institutions.

This approval marks a significant breakthrough for Ethereum on the path to compliance, enhancing its market legitimacy and liquidity, and becoming a milestone towards mainstream finance.

Currently, the total net asset value of Ethereum spot ETFs has exceeded $20.66 billion, accounting for approximately 4.64% of Ethereum's total market value, with net inflows for four consecutive months, demonstrating strong market demand and enthusiasm from institutional participants.

2024: Ethereum Cancun Upgrade

On March 13, 2024, Ethereum completed the highly anticipated Cancun (Dencun) upgrade, which is seen as a key step towards driving mass scalability.

The core upgrade introduces EIP-4844 (Proto-Danksharding) as the initial phase towards a complete data sharding transition. By temporarily storing the transaction data of Layer 2 scaling solutions in data blocks (blobs), it significantly reduces data storage costs, with the potential to greatly lower transaction fees on Layer 2 networks, enhance scalability, and improve developer and user friendliness.

2025: Rise of Ethereum Treasury Reserves

Since the beginning of this year, more and more institutions have been using ETH as a strategic asset reserve, forming the trend of "Ethereum Micro Strategy".

As of July 28, the total strategic ETH reserves reached 2.32 million, valued at approximately $8.98 billion, with 63 institutions participating, accounting for about 1.92% of the circulating supply of Ethereum. Among them, BitMine and SharpLink Gaming are the two U.S. listed companies with the largest ETH holdings, holding 566,800 and 360,000 ETH respectively.

In the past decade, Ethereum has evolved from an experimental concept into a cornerstone of the cryptocurrency world, witnessing technological innovations, market fluctuations, and regulatory challenges. Looking ahead, Ethereum will continue to drive the development and application of blockchain technology, playing an increasingly important role in the decentralized world.