$ETH (Ether) is the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain, and it plays a central role in powering the decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts on the network.
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Quick Overview
Symbol: ETH
Launched: 2015
Blockchain: Ethereum
Creator: Vitalik Buterin (and team)
Consensus: Proof of Stake (as of the Merge, September 2022)
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Primary Uses of ETH
1. Gas Fees: Used to pay for transactions and smart contract executions on the Ethereum network.
2. Staking: Users can stake ETH to help secure the network and earn rewards.
3. DeFi & NFTs: ETH is widely used in decentralized finance apps and to buy/sell NFTs.
4. Store of Value / Investment: Many treat ETH as a long-term asset like digital oil.
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Recent Developments (2025)
Dencun Upgrade (March 2024): Introduced proto-danksharding (EIP-4844), significantly reducing Layer 2 fees via blobs.
Ethereum Security Initiative (1TS): A major multi-year effort to make Ethereum secure enough to support trillions in assets (see: #EthereumSecurityInitiative).
Layer 2 Boom: Ecosystem growth on chains like Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, and zkSync has made ETH even more scalable and useful.
Restaking & EigenLayer: ETH can now be “restaked” to help secure other protocols, opening up new yield opportunities.
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ETH Tokenomics
Supply: Not fixed, but often deflationary due to EIP-1559, which burns base fees.
Staked ETH: Over 30 million ETH is staked as of 2025.
Market Position: ETH is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap after Bitcoin.
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Where Can You Use or Hold ETH?
Wallets: MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, Ledger, Trezor
Exchanges: Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, OKX
DeFi: Aave, Lido, Uniswap, Curve
NFTs: OpenSea, Blur, Zora
