Ethereum News Today: Ethereum Celebrates 10th Anniversary With $3,700 Price Surge and Major Upgrades

Ethereum’s 10th anniversary, marked on July 30, 2025, highlights a decade of innovation in blockchain technology. Since its launch in 2015, Ethereum has grown from a vision outlined in a whitepaper by Vitalik Buterin in 2013 to the most influential smart contract platform globally. The project laid the foundation for decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), reshaping the digital economy [1].

The blockchain’s journey has been defined by key milestones. In 2014, Ethereum raised over 31,000 BTC (~$18M) through its initial coin offering (ICO). The platform officially launched in July 2015 with the Frontier version, and the first ETH trades occurred at around $0.75 [1]. Over the next few years, Ethereum saw major upgrades, including the Homestead release in 2016 and the controversial hard fork that led to the creation of Ethereum Classic in response to the DAO exploit [1].

The 2017 ICO boom, largely built on Ethereum’s ERC-20 standard, saw the price of ETH surge to $826 by December 2017. The bull run continued into 2018, peaking at $1,420 on January 13, while the early stages of DeFi were also taking shape during this time [1]. The Constantinople upgrade in 2019 introduced efficiency improvements, and by 2020, Ethereum 2.0 development accelerated with the launch of the Beacon Chain testnet.

The pandemic brought volatility, with ETH dropping below $100 in March 2020. However, the DeFi Summer saw explosive growth in projects like Uniswap and Aave. The transition to Ethereum 2.0 began in earnest in December 2020 with the launch of the Beacon Chain, marking the start of the Proof-of-Stake era [1].

The Merge in September 2022 marked a major shift, as Ethereum transitioned from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake, significantly reducing energy consumption and positioning the network for greater scalability. By April 2023, the Shanghai Upgrade enabled staking withdrawals and triggered a brief ETH price surge to $2,100 [1]. Layer-2 solutions like Arbitrum and Optimism became central to Ethereum’s scalability strategy.

In 2024, Ethereum continued to evolve. Modular blockchain concepts gained traction, with projects like EigenLayer driving restaking innovation. Layer-2 activity set records, and ETH prices surged past $3,700 amid a broader market rally. In 2025, the Ethereum developer community finalized key upgrades including Verkle Trees and Proto-Danksharding, positioning the platform for even greater efficiency and scalability [1].

As Ethereum marks its 10th birthday, the platform has not only survived market volatility but driven innovation in decentralized technologies. It has transitioned to a sustainable Proof-of-Stake model, introduced deflationary mechanics through EIP-1559, and set the stage for a modular and scalable Web3 future. Looking ahead, the next decade could bring mainstream tokenization, AI-integrated blockchain solutions, and a more efficient and resilient Ethereum ecosystem [1].

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[1] https://coinmarketcap.com/community/articles/688b1c810eb4160cb4e8d026/