$ETH — is not just the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization after Bitcoin. It is a full-fledged platform for creating decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts. Here’s what you need to know right now:

• Current price: ~$3,150 (as of April 26, 2025)

• Market capitalization: ~$378 billion

Recent events:

• The Dencun upgrade was completed in March 2025, which implemented "blobs" (EIP-4844) — they significantly reduced fees in Layer 2 (L2) networks.

• Increased activity in the Optimism, Arbitrum, and Base ecosystems is driving demand for $ETH for staking and gas payments.

Fundamental factors:

• Over 27 million ETH are locked in staking (about 22% of the total supply).

• After the transition to Proof-of-Stake in 2022, ETH inflation has practically been eliminated. Sometimes ETH even becomes a deflationary asset (the number of coins decreases).

What could affect the price further:

• Development of the L2 solution ecosystem.

• Launch of potential ETH-ETFs in the USA (SEC decision expected in summer 2025).

• Mass adoption of corporate solutions based on Ethereum thanks to new scalable technologies.