Deng Tong, Golden Finance
On July 30, 2025, Ethereum will celebrate its 10th anniversary. After 10 years of ups and downs, what major events have taken place in the history of Ethereum? Who is buying Ethereum at a time when the market is booming? What new narratives does Ethereum have? Can it reach the $4,000 mark?
In 2013, Vitalik Buterin conceived Ethereum. In 2014, he started the development of Ethereum with Gavin Wood, Charles Hoskinson, Anthony Di Iorio and Joseph Lubin, and conducted crowdfunding. Ethereum was officially launched on July 30, 2015. Now, Ethereum is about to celebrate its 10th anniversary. In this section, let us review the major events in the history of Ethereum's development and look back at the highlights of Ethereum's development.
In 2013, Vitalik Buterin published the Ethereum white paper. In the white paper, Vitalik acknowledged that the birth of Bitcoin in 2009 was a major breakthrough for Satoshi Nakamoto. However, what Vitalik really wanted to expand was the underlying blockchain technology as a tool for distributed consensus.
From July 22 to September 2, 2014, Ethereum was available for sale, and people could buy Ethereum with Bitcoin. In the Ethereum announcement, the discount price of Ethereum was set at 2,000 ETH per BTC, and it fell linearly to 1,337 ETH per BTC in 42 days. This means that the issue price of ETH was $0.29 per ETH. But when ETH was first traded on August 7, 2015, it was trading at $2.77.
On July 30, 2015, the first version of Ethereum, Frontier, was officially launched, marking the official launch of the Ethereum mainnet. The Ethereum network officially moved from theory to practice. Developers can mine Ethereum and start developing dApps and various tools, taking a critical first step in the development of the Ethereum ecosystem.
On March 14, 2016, the Homestead hard fork was officially launched. This fork marks the transition of Ethereum from the experimental stage to a more stable official version, laying an important foundation for subsequent development.
On July 20, 2016, Ethereum suffered its first major hacker attack, the DAO attack, which led to the DAO fork. The DAO attack originated from an unsafe contract, which caused hackers to steal 3.6 million ETH. The DAO fork was conducted by the Ethereum community through a voting system, and any ETH holder could vote through the voting platform. In the end, 85% of voters agreed to the fork. However, some miners refused to fork, which led to the birth of Ethereum Classic (ETC).
On October 18, 2016, the Tangerine Whistle hard fork was launched, aimed at solving urgent network health issues facing the Ethereum network.
On October 16, 2017, the Byzantium hard fork was officially launched. It is the first hard fork in the "Metropolis" development stage of Ethereum. It contains 9 Ethereum Improvement Protocols (EIPs) aimed at improving the efficiency, privacy and security of Ethereum. It also reduces the block reward from 5ETH to 3ETH and postpones the "difficulty bomb".
On February 28, 2019, the Constantinople hard fork. The Constantinople hard fork aims to improve the efficiency of Ethereum and design more optimized solutions for smart contracts and decentralized applications.
December 9, 2019, Istanbul hard fork. This upgrade improves the denial of service (DoS) attack that Ethereum suffered a few years ago. This hard fork also enables interoperability between Ethereum and Zcash and allows contracts to have more innovative functions.
January 2, 2020, "Muir Glacier" hard fork, which postpones the "difficulty bomb" by 4 million new blocks, about 611 days, through hard fork, to buy more time for Ethereum to transition to the proof-of-stake mechanism.
December 1, 2020, the beacon chain began to produce blocks. The beacon chain is a core component of Ethereum 2.0 and is a brand new proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain.
April 15, 2021, Berlin upgrade. The hard fork optimized the gas fees for certain operations on the EVM and added support for multiple transaction types.
On August 5, 2021, the London hard fork introduced EIP 1559, which implemented a base fee system, a tipping mechanism, and a feature that allows users to specify a maximum fee. If there is a difference between the maximum fee, the base fee, and the miner tip, the user will receive an Ethereum refund.
The Altair fork on October 27, 2021 was the first upgrade of the beacon chain. The two main upgrades of the Altair fork include the introduction of the "inactivity + slashing" mechanism and support for light clients. "Inactivity + slashing penalties" reduces the rewards for inactive stakers on the network, while support for light clients allows validators to access the blockchain without being continuously connected to the blockchain.
On December 9, 2021, Arrow Glacier was launched, aiming to postpone the Ethereum network's "difficulty bomb" until June 2022.
On June 30, 2022, the "Gray Glacier" upgrade postponed the difficulty bomb by 3 months.
On September 15, 2022, the Ethereum merge upgrade was completed, which was an important event in the Ethereum blockchain's transition from a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. This upgrade merged the Ethereum mainnet with the beacon chain, which was a milestone in the history of blockchain development.
In June 2022, Gray Glacier was upgraded. This upgrade once again delayed the difficulty bomb, further buying time for Ethereum's full transition to a proof-of-stake mechanism, ensuring that the network's mining difficulty would not increase excessively due to the difficulty bomb, and maintaining the stable operation of the network.
In March 2024, Dencun was upgraded. The upgrade introduced data blobs for the second-layer expansion, which helped improve the performance of Ethereum's second-layer solution, enhance the scalability of the network, and laid the foundation for reducing transaction costs and increasing transaction processing speed.
On May 24, 2024, the SEC officially approved the 19b-4 form of the Ethereum spot ETF, involving BlackRock, Invesco, Fidelity and other institutions. The 19b-4 form is mainly used for rule change applications proposed by stock exchanges, which is a key step in the listing of Ethereum spot ETFs. On July 23, 2024, the SEC officially approved the S-1 filing of the ETF, and the Ethereum spot ETF was approved for listing. The S-1 filing is the last step before the fund officially starts to be sold and traded. This approval marks that the Ethereum spot ETF can officially enter the market for trading.
On May 7, 2025, the Pectra upgrade was activated. It introduced 11 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) aimed at enhancing the staking, scalability and user experience of the Ethereum network.
On July 21, James Wynn closed his long positions in ETH (25x leverage) and PEPE (10x leverage), making a profit of $538,500.
On July 20, a whale withdrew 103 WBTC ($12.22 million) from Binance and exchanged 70 of them for 2,214 ETH ($8.26 million) on the chain at an exchange rate of 0.0316.
On July 20, The White Whale, a top trader on the Hyperliquid platform, made nearly $30 million in profits in just one week. In the past week, he has locked in nearly $30 million in profits through 4 wallets on ETH and SOL, ranking first on the list.
On July 20, the hacker who stole more than $300 million from Coinbase users bought another 649.62 ETH ($2.31 million) at $3,561 9 hours ago.
On July 20, two newly created "whales" or institutional wallets purchased 58,268 ETH through FalconX and Galaxy Digital, worth about $212 million.
On July 19, the "whale/institution hoarding ETH through FalconX" continued to hoard 19,550 ETH (about $70.7 million). Since July 12, this address has continued to hoard 122,000 ETH (about $435 million) through FalconX, with an average price of about $3,213.
On July 18, Nasdaq-listed Bit Digital (stock code: BTBT) announced that it had purchased approximately 19,683 ETH using the net proceeds from the recently completed $67.3 million private placement. After this transaction, the total amount of Ethereum held by Bit Digital reached about 120,306.
On July 18, Trump family crypto project WLFI spent 3 million USDC to increase its holdings by 861 ETH.
On July 18, Nasdaq-listed Thumzup Media Corporation announced that its board of directors had approved the authorization of the company to invest $250 million in cryptocurrencies. The cryptocurrencies to be invested at this stage include: BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, DOGE, LTC and USDC, aiming to diversify its cryptocurrency portfolio.
On July 18, SharpLink increased its holdings by another 18,712 ETH, holding a total of 326,074 ETH, worth $1.14 billion.
On July 17, BlackRock purchased another 158,875 ETH, worth about $574 million. This is the total amount of 363,445 ETH purchased by the institution in two days, with a total value of US$1.31 billion. At present, the total amount of ETH held by BlackRock has reached 2.46 million, worth about US$8.9 billion.
On July 17, GameSquare Holdings announced that it plans to issue 46,666,667 shares of common stock to raise US$70 million. The company plans to use this money to increase its ETH holdings.
More and more companies are hoarding cryptocurrencies and following Strategy's example to transform into crypto treasury companies.
On May 27, 2025, sports betting operator SharpLink Gaming, Inc. (NASDAQ: SBET) announced the signing of a securities purchase agreement for a $425 million private placement (PIPE) of a public company, planning to issue approximately 69.1 million shares of common stock (or equivalent securities) at a price of $6.15 per share (US$6.72 per share for members of the company's management team). SharpLink will use the raised funds to purchase Ethereum (ETH) as the company's main treasury reserve asset. After the transaction is completed, Ethereum co-founder, Consensys founder and CEO Joseph Lubin will serve as chairman of the board of directors of SharpLink and assist the company in developing its core business as a strategic advisor. Since then, SharpLink has officially become an Ethereum treasury enterprise, known as the "ETH version of MicroStrategy".
For details, please refer to the Golden Finance article: "From Gambling Operator to "ETH Version of Micro Strategy" Understand SharpLink's Journey to Ethereum Treasury"
Since the US SEC officially approved the Ethereum spot ETF in July 2024, products represented by BlackRock (ETHA), Fidelity (FETH), and Grayscale (ETHE) have quickly become the darlings of funds. BlackRock ETHA ranks first with $21 billion in AUM, and the average daily net inflow of a single product exceeds $120 million. This scale growth not only reflects the recognition of ETH by traditional institutions, but also makes ETH gradually shift from a "high-risk crypto asset" to a "mainstream configuration target."
The popularity of Ethereum ETFs has significantly changed the holding structure of ETH - the proportion of institutional holdings has increased from 12% in 2024 to 27% in 2025, while the proportion of exchange circulation has dropped from 31% to 18%, the lowest since 2018. This "de-exchange" trend has reduced short-term selling pressure, reducing ETH price volatility (30-day annualized) from 65% to 42%, closer to traditional assets (such as gold volatility of about 15%), and further attracting risk-averse funds to enter the market. ETH is being integrated into the traditional financial system.
On June 4, Consensys CEO and Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin revealed that the company is negotiating with a sovereign wealth fund and bank of a "big country" on the possibility of building infrastructure in the Ethereum ecosystem. Lubin predicts that Ethereum will usher in a decentralized super cycle and may become the core of the new global financial system.
Vitalik Buterin said that Ethereum blockchain capabilities will increase 10 times in the next year. Lubin called Ethereum the "gold standard of trust" and believed that its value could eventually surpass Bitcoin.
The development of US dollar stablecoins has created unprecedented opportunities for Ethereum. Stablecoins provide individuals around the world with access to US dollars - a 60-fold increase to more than $200 billion since 2020 - and millions of new US dollar holders need more than just digital cash. They need returns, investment opportunities and financial services. Due to regulatory and infrastructure constraints, traditional finance cannot serve this huge new market.
The strong price trend of Ethereum has become one of the highlights of the cryptocurrency market in July. Kobeissi noted: “Since July 1, Ethereum’s market cap has increased by $150 billion, and net short exposure hit an all-time high a few days ago.” ETH/USD 3-hour chart. Source: The Kobeissi Letter/X “In addition, many shorts are using leverage, which further increases the pressure. Ethereum may soon reach $4,000.” If Ethereum rises another 10%, an additional $1 billion in short positions will be liquidated.
ETH exchange liquidation heat map as of July 18. Source: The Kobeissi Letter/X
On July 20, LD Capital founder Yi Lihua wrote: "ETH has broken 3700. The weakness in the past few years has made everyone forget the strength of ETH in the bull market of 17 and 20 years. ETH far outperformed BTC. This round, we insist that ETH continues to outperform BTC, which has been verified. Don't short in the bull market, at least hold ETH, you won't miss this round of market."
QCP Capital stated in the market weekly report released on July 21: Multiple altcoin season indicators have exceeded 50, reaching the highest level since December last year, and the open interest of ETH perpetual contracts has jumped from US$18 billion to US$28 billion in a week, indicating that the altcoin season may have officially begun. QCP pointed out that the leaders of this cycle are institutional investors. Benefiting from the clarification of the stablecoin regulatory framework brought about by the implementation of the GENIUS Act, corporate finance has begun to increase its holdings of L1 public chain tokens such as ETH, SOL, XRP and ADA, similar to the role of BTC in the financial configuration of Strategy and Metaplanet. If ETH obtains SEC approval for its pledged spot ETF in the next few months, it may attract funds from BTC ETF to ETH, further releasing the potential for returns. In fact, last week, the daily net inflow of ETH spot ETF has exceeded BTC for two consecutive days, showing that institutions have a surge in interest in ETH, and BlackRock is also confident in its pledged ETH ETF. In addition, the ETH options market has active bullish spread trading, and the bullish spread positions expiring in September and December have been established in large quantities, highlighting the market's optimism about the fourth quarter. Currently, BTC's market dominance has dropped from 64% to 60%, while ETH's market share has risen from 9.7% to 11.6%. If the trend continues, a new round of altcoin season may have begun. QCP said it will continue to pay attention to relevant signals and update trends as soon as possible.
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