Ethereum's price history suggests that that crypto was worth significantly less in 2022 than during late 2021, although nowhere near the lowest price recorded. Much like Bitcoin (BTC), the price of ETH went up in 2021 but for different reasons altogether: Ethereum, for instance, hit the news when a digital art piece was sold as the world's most expensive NFT for over 38,000 ETH - or 69.3 million U.S. dollars. Unlike Bitcoin - of which the price growth was fueled by the IPO of the U.S.' biggest crypto trader Coinbase - the rally on Ethereum came from technological developments that caused much excitement among traders. First, the so-called 'Berlin update' rolled out on the Ethereum network in April 2021, an update which would eventually lead to the Ethereum Merge in 2022 and reduced ETH gas prices - or reduced transaction fees. The collapse of FTX in late 2022, however, changed much for the cryptocurrency. As of March 25, 2025, Ethereum was worth 2,067.76 U.S. dollars - significantly less than the 4,400 U.S. dollars by the end of 2021.Ethereum's future and the DeFi industry Price developments on Ethereum are difficult to predict, but cannot be seen without the world of DeFi - or Decentralized Finance. This industry used technology to remove intermediaries between parties in a financial transaction. One example includes crypto wallets such as Coinbase Wallet that grew in popularity in recent years, with other examples including smart contractor Uniswap, Maker (responsible for stablecoin DAI), money lender Dharma and market protocol Compound. Ethereum's future developments are tied with this industry: Unlike Bitcoin and Ripple, Ethereum is technically not a currency but an open-source software platform for blockchain applications - with Ether being the cryptocurrency that is used inside the Ethereum network. Essentially, Ethereum facilitates DeFi - meaning that if DeFi does well, so does Ethereum.NFTs: the most well-known application of EthereumNFTs or non-fungible tokens grew nearly ten-fold between 2018 and 2020, as can be seen in the market cap of NFTs worldwide. These digital blockchain assets can essentially function as a unique code connected to a digital file, allowing to distinguish the original file from any potential copies. This application is especially prominent in crypto art, although there are other applications: gaming, sports and collectibles are other segments where NFT sales occur.
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Ethereum Classic is an open-source, public, blockchain-based distributed computing platform featuring smart contract (scripting) functionality. It provides a decentralized Turing-complete virtual machine, the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which can execute scripts using an international network of public nodes. Ethereum Classic and Ethereum have a value token called "ether", which can be transferred between participants, stored in a cryptocurrency wallet and is used to compensate participant nodes for computations performed in the Ethereum Platform.
Ethereum Classic came into existence when some members of the Ethereum community rejected the DAO hard fork on the grounds of "immutability", the principle that the blockchain cannot be changed, and decided to keep using the unforked version of Ethereum. Till this day, Etherum Classic runs the original Ethereum chain.
In this dataset, you will have access to Ethereum Classic (ETC) historical block data along with transactions and traces. You can access the data from BigQuery in your notebook with bigquery-public-data.crypto_ethereum_classic
dataset.
You can use the BigQuery Python client library to query tables in this dataset in Kernels. Note that methods available in Kernels are limited to querying data. Tables are at bigquery-public-data.crypto_ethereum_classic.[TABLENAME]. Fork this kernel to get started.
This dataset wouldn't be possible without the help of Allen Day, Evgeny Medvedev and Yaz Khoury. This dataset uses Blockchain ETL. Special thanks to ETC community member @donsyang for the banner image.
One of the main questions we wanted to answer was the Gini coefficient of ETC data. We also wanted to analyze the DAO Smart Contract before and after the DAO Hack and the resulting Hardfork. We also wanted to analyze the network during the famous 51% attack and see what sort of patterns we can spot about the attacker.
Ethereum trading volume more than doubled on May 19, 2021, compared to the previous day, following news China banned crypto services inside the country. Following this news, the market cap for the entire crypto market fell by billions of U.S. dollars. The Ethereum price that day also witnessed one of its biggest single-day declines on record. The price decline potentially may have attracted new investors to the cryptocurrency, leading to the increase in trading volume.
By March 2022, over 119 million Ethereum tokens were issued and in active circulation - but it is expected new coins will not arrive at a fast pace. Although the cryptocurrency has an unlimited supply - unlike Bitcoin, of which there can only be 21 million tokens and not a single more - the Ethereum blockchain received an update in August 2021, EIP-1559, that both increased the block size needed to create new coins and destroyed (“burned”) any transactions fees, rather than send them to the original miners. This led to a decline in issuance, as mining Ethereum essentially was made less profitable. Issuance is expected to decline further when Ethereum 2.0 arrives.
Ethereum: a counter to inflation?
In a time when inflation rates became a big talking point, Ethereum received much social media attention in late 2021 for possibly being deflationary. This argument stems from August 2021, or “London Hard Fork”, upgrade in August 2021: Each transaction on the Ethereum network would entirely remove a portion of Ethereum from the total supply in circulation. On days of high transaction activity of Ethereum, for example, after a change in the price of Ethereum, this can effectively mean more coins are being destroyed than there are being created.
Ethereum supply to change after the upgrade to 2.0?
Experts state burning on a scale that the supply of Ethereum declines only happens on occasion, stating it acts more as a temporary slowdown of growth rather than an active attempt to continuously shrink supply. This could change, however, when Ethereum 2.0 arrives – or when Ethereum switches from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS). The general assumption for this is that staking rewards are generally lower than rewards for Proof-of-Work (mining), lowering the incentive for the creation of new coins. If usage – which some measure via the Ethereum gas price, or transaction fee per transaction – remains unchanged otherwise, this would lower the threshold for Ethereum to become deflationary.
[ Derived from parent entry - See data hierarchy tab ]
historical is an experiment of the CMIP5 - Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 ( https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5 ). CMIP5 is meant to provide a framework for coordinated climate change experiments for the next five years and thus includes simulations for assessment in the IPCC AR5. This subset of the CMIP5 additional historical data were collected by ETH Zurich until 15th March 2013 in support of IPCC AR5 Working Group 1 ( http://wiki.c2sm.ethz.ch/COSMO/CMIP5 ). These data are part of the IPCC-DDC AR5.
historical (3.2 Historical) - Version 2: Simulation of recent past (1850 to 2005). Impose changing conditions (consistent with observations).
Experiment design: https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/experiment_design.html List of output variables: https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/datadescription.html Output: time series per variable in model grid spatial resolution in netCDF format Earth System model and the simulation information: CIM repository
Data are structured and entry names are set according to the ETH Zurich Archive layout: "experiment/MIP table/variable/model/ensemble member/CMOR filename.nc"
In April 2021, the Ethereum market cap reached new heights and grew to over 250 billion U.S. dollars - the first time this cryptocurrency achieved that feat. The market capitalization in August 2020 was half this amount. Market capitalization is calculated by multiplying the total number of Ethereum in circulation by the Ethereum price. Compared to the Bitcoin market capitalization, however, Ethereum was not yet as popular.
https://market.oceanprotocol.com/termshttps://market.oceanprotocol.com/terms
Crypto Market Anomaly Score
AI-powered market anomaly detection is a crypto and financial market nowcasting technology targeting a selection of liquid crypto assets like BTC, ETH, ADA, DOT, BNB or XMR.
Definity, a DeFi marketplace for fiat foreign exchange, tokenised currencies, and central bank digital currencies (CBDC), has partnered with Axyon AI to enable the first ever use of Deep Learning-powered AI to detect market anomalies in the digital asset space.
Axyon AI is a leading European FinTech company with expertise in Deep Learning/AI for asset management and trading firms. Axyon AI has successful products in several financial use-cases, from security selection and asset allocation to anomaly detection in option pricing.
Dataset
On a daily basis, approx at 00:00 UTC, a new anomaly score (0-100%) is generated by AI models for each supported crypto asset. The AI models look at a combination of market data, context data and on-chain data to detect irregular patterns. These may be the result of undisclosed new information, ripple effects from correlated assets, or structural breaks in an asset’s behaviour versus the broader market. This technology can promptly discover these hidden market data aberrations, which would be otherwise undetectable, and provide an early warning on potential volatility events.
The output looks like this for a given day:
Asset | Anomaly score | 1d change | 1w change |
---|---|---|---|
AAVE | 74.4 | -8.5 | +27.0 |
ADA | 71.2 | -12.0 | -11.7 |
BNB | 68.8 | -8.1 | +67.2 |
The endpoint returns the latest anomaly score for all the assets in CSV format, and it is updated every day between 00:00 and 01:00 UTC.
Download a sample here
Supported assets:
AAVE ADA BNB BTC ETH DOT LTC MATIC SOL UNI XMR XRP
BTC historical anomaly score Example of historical anomaly scores for BTC plotted against its price.
Use Cases
This technology comes at a time when detecting the sign of an upcoming unpredictable event is more important than ever. Detecting market anomalies can help the digital asset space to anticipate and prepare for future events that could impact the industry, just like COVID-19.
While noticing a sharp price change is simple for anyone, analysing the relationships among dozens of variables simultaneously is a hard task even for the most experienced traders.
Anomaly scores are often used as a risk management alert system, or as an input feature for quantitative trading strategies.
Technology
AI-powered market anomaly detection is a cutting-edge technology that generates automated alerts on irregular patterns in asset prices, which may be the result of undisclosed new information, ripple effects from correlated assets, or structural breaks in an asset’s behaviour versus the broader market. The AI technology can promptly discover these hidden market data aberrations, which would be otherwise undetectable, and provide an early warning on potential volatility events.
Axyon AI has pioneered the successful use of deep learning anomaly detection in equities, fixed income and commodities for leading players in the traditional asset management sector and was able to successfully predict volatility events prior to the March 2020 pan-market selloff, using this technology.
Anomalies within market data are observations that deviate, dramatically from the regularities and patterns observed within the remaining dataset. An outlier can be thought of as an observation which deviates so much from the other observations as to arouse suspicions that it was generated by an entirely different mechanism. This definition implies that regular data points possess specific patterns and regularities that anomalies do not follow. Therefore, anomalies can be identified by first creating a model of the normal patterns in the data and then measuring the deviation of any given data point from those patterns in order to find the outliers. While the parameters of normal behaviour can be, and often are, set by human experts, deep learning algorithms are exponentially more successful in terms of speed and efficacy.
Axyon AI deep learning technology uses a state-of-the-art unsupervised anomaly detection model called Isolation Forest (IF) in conjunction with a proprietary post-processing technique developed by Axyon.
Contacts
Telegram: https://t.me/DeFinity_Community Twitter: https://twitter.com/definitynetwork
Bitcoin's transaction volume was at its highest in December 2023, when the network processed over 724,000 coins on the same day. Bitcoin generally has a higher transaction activity than other cryptocurrencies, except Ethereum. This cryptocurrency is often processed more than one million times per day. Note that the transaction volume here refers to transactions registered within the Bitcoin blockchain. It should not be confused with Bitcoin's 24-hour trade volume, a metric associated with crypto exchanges. The more Bitcoin transactions, the more it is used in B2C payments? A Bitcoin transaction recorded in the blockchain can be any transaction, including B2C but also P2P. While it is possible to see in the blockchain which address sent Bitcoin to whom, details on who this person is and where they are from are often missing. Bitcoin was designed to go against monetary authorities and prides itself on being anonymous. An important argument against Bitcoin replacing cash or cards in payments is that the cryptocurrency was not allowed for such a task: Bitcoin ranks among the slowest cryptocurrencies in terms of transaction speed. Are cryptocurrencies taking over payments? Cryptocurrency payments are set to grow at a CAGR of nearly 17 percent between 2022 and 2029, although the market is relatively small. The forecast is according to a market estimate made in early 2023, based on various conditions and sources available at that time. Research across 40 countries during the same time suggested that the market share of cryptocurrency in e-commerce transactions was "less than one percent" in all surveyed countries, with predictions being this would not change in the future.
Crypto 24h trading volume declined as 2023 progressed, with figures being one-third lower than in 2022. The decline follows after Binance and Coins - two of the biggest crypto exchanges in the world - received lawsuits in the United States. Observations are also that the crypto market was quiet after April, citing a lack of a "strong overarching narrative". This is in contrast to 2021 and 2022 when cryptocurrency dominated the news and many people sought fortune in the digital currency.
Bitcoin developments
Bitcoin's trade volume slowed in the second quarter of 2023, after hitting a noticeable growth at the beginning of the year. The coin outperformed most of the market. Some attribute this to the announcement in June 203 that BlackRock filed for a Bitcoin ETF. This iShares Bitcoin Trust was to use Coinbase Custody as its custodian. Regulators in the United States had not yet approved any applications for spot ETFs on Bitcoin.
Changes in Ethereum staking in 2023
Ethereum's trade volume changed in 2023 due to the rollout of the Shapella (Shanghai and Cappella) upgrade. The update allowed investors to withdraw (unstake) Ethereum deposited into the network. Staking can be somewhat compared to depositing money at a bank, where one would submit money to be held and gains interest as time goes by. Lido has the highest staking pool (a platform that allows for staking) in Ethereum, higher than major crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken.
Bitcoin dominance steadily declined in April 2024 to below 50 percent, amid rumors of central banks halting or potentially lowering interest rates in the future. Within the crypto world, this so-called "dominance" ratio is one of the oldest and most investigated metrics available. It measures the coin's market cap relative to the overall crypto market — effectively showing how strong Bitcoin compared to all the other cryptocurrencies that are not BTC, called "altcoins". Why dominance matters is because market caps of any crypto can change relatively quickly, either due to sudden price changes or a change of recorded trading volume. Essentially, the figure somewhat resembles a trading sentiment, revealing whether Bitcoin investors are responding to certain events or whether Bitcoin is losing out on functions offered by, for example, stablecoins or NFT tokens. "Dominance" criticism: Ethereum and stablecoin The interpretation of the Bitcoin metric is not without its criticism. When first conceived, Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to be created and had a substantial market share within all cryptocurrencies? The overall share of stablecoins, such as Tether, as well as Ethereum increasingly start to resemble that of Bitcoin, however. Some analysts argue against this comparison. For one, they point towards the large influence of trading activity between Bitcoin and Ethereum in the dominance metric. Second, they argue that stablecoins can be traded in for Bitcoin and Ethereum, essentially showing how much investors are willing to engage with "regular" cryptocurrency. A rally around Bitcoin in late 2023? By December 2023, the Bitcoin price reached roughly 41,000 U.S. dollars — the first time in 20 months such a value was reached. A weaker U.S. dollar, speculation on decreasing interest rates, and a potential Bitcoin ETF approval are believed to be at the heart of this price increase. Whether this will hold in 2024 is unclear: The monthly interest rate from the U.S. Fed is speculated to decrease in 2024, despite a vow of "higher for longer". In December 2023, the thought of decreasing interest rates and the potential of a Bitcoin ETF fuelled market sentiment towards riskier assets.
Ripple - or XRP - prices surged in 2021, but went down significantly as 2022 progressed. As of March 26, 2025, one XRP token was worth 2.35 U.S. dollars. Ethereum's price, for example, kept on reaching new all-time highs, a feat not performed by XRP. Indeed, XRP's more price spikes followed relatively late - only occurring in early 2021, against late 2020 for most other cryptos - after the US SEC filed a legal complaint against Ripple in November 2020. This legal action caused the XRP price to plummet from around 0.70 U.S. dollars to 0.20 U.S. dollars.Ripple versus XRP: two become oneTechnically speaking, Ripple is not a cryptocurrency. Renamed from a protocol called OpenCoin in 2013, Ripple facilitates open-source payments. XRP, on the other hand, is the cryptocurrency that runs on this network. In that sense, Ripple and XRP have a similar symbiosis to each other like the Ethereum network and its cryptocurrency Ether. Unlike Ethereum - whose price changes are connected to the world of Decentralized Finance or DeFI - Ripple/XRP mostly looks at developments on cross-border payments for companies. In 2020, companies worldwide began to favor fintech solutions for future B2B solutions and, in a way, Ripple is an extension of that.What affects the price of Ripple?Ripple is mostly active in Southeast Asia - a region with a splintered payment landscape and that heavily investigates its own types of state-issued cryptocurrency to make cross-border payments a lot easier. Price spikes tend to follow after news on this topic in this specific region. In 2019, for example, the XRP price grew after Japan and South Korea began testing to reduce time and costs for transferring international funds between the two countries. In March 2021, Ripple announced that it had agreed to acquire 40 percent of Malaysian cross-border payments firm Tranglo to meet growing demand in Southeast Asia.
The market cap of the top 10 stablecoin initially multiplied over time, reaching a combined value of over 221 billion USD in March 2025. Note this value does not include TerraUSD (UST), the algorithmic stablecoin tied to the LUNA crypto which declined severely in May 2022. Up to then, estimates reveal that the market cap had more than tripled within five months - likely in the wake of growing interest worldwide in cryptocurrencies, after sudden price spikes in a coin like Dogecoin (DOGE). Stability above all, or what does a stablecoin do? Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies - like the commonly known Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) - but their value is determined in a different way. Whilst the price of Bitcoin mainly follows supply - how many coins are being mined or are available to purchase - and demand - how many investors want buy the coin - stablecoins are synthetically connected to the price of an altogether different asset. Tether's USDT, for instance, is connected to the price development of the U.S. dollar (USD): if the U.S. dollar falls in the FX market, so does the USDT. Compare this to the "regular" price history of a cryptocurrency like Ripple (XRP) and stablecoins reveal themselves to be a relatively less volatile digital currency to either use or invest in that their counterparts in the free market. A test ground for digital payments This stability of these particular cryptocurrencies is important for two areas in digital payments that do not prefer volality. For instance, these coins are a popular choice within the world of Decentralized Finance or DeFi - an online financial market without the supervision of central bank that relies on cryptocurrencies for payments and loans. Because of that reliance, it is a market that can rapidly change in size due to price fluctuations or changing transaction fees of certain cryptocurrencies - something that is less likely to occur when using stablecoins. Additionally, stablecoins are seen as the inspiration for so-called CBDC or Central Bank Digital Currencies - such as China's e-CNY currency or the "digital euro" that is being researched in the EU-27. In terms of how advanced countries worldwide are into researching their own cryptocurrency, China ranked third in 2020, behind Cambodia, and The Bahamas.
Ripple - or XRP - prices surged in 2021, but went down significantly as 2022 progressed. As of March 25, 2025, one XRP token was worth 2.45 U.S. dollars. Ethereum's price, for example, kept on reaching new all-time highs, a feat not performed by XRP. Indeed, XRP's more price spikes followed relatively late - only occurring in early 2021, against late 2020 for most other cryptos - after the US SEC filed a legal complaint against Ripple in November 2020. This legal action caused the XRP price to plummet from around 0.70 U.S. dollars to 0.20 U.S. dollars.Ripple versus XRP: two become oneTechnically speaking, Ripple is not a cryptocurrency. Renamed from a protocol called OpenCoin in 2013, Ripple facilitates open-source payments. XRP, on the other hand, is the cryptocurrency that runs on this network. In that sense, Ripple and XRP have a similar symbiosis to each other like the Ethereum network and its cryptocurrency Ether. Unlike Ethereum - whose price changes are connected to the world of Decentralized Finance or DeFI - Ripple/XRP mostly looks at developments on cross-border payments for companies. In 2020, companies worldwide began to favor fintech solutions for future B2B solutions and, in a way, Ripple is an extension of that.What affects the price of Ripple?Ripple is mostly active in Southeast Asia - a region with a splintered payment landscape and that heavily investigates its own types of state-issued cryptocurrency to make cross-border payments a lot easier. Price spikes tend to follow after news on this topic in this specific region. In 2019, for example, the XRP price grew after Japan and South Korea began testing to reduce time and costs for transferring international funds between the two countries. In March 2021, Ripple announced that it had agreed to acquire 40 percent of Malaysian cross-border payments firm Tranglo to meet growing demand in Southeast Asia.
Memecoin Shiba Inu saw its price grow by more than 300 percent within one and the same month, marking a trading fury reminiscent of Dogecoin in early 2021. Indeed, the SHIB coin ranked as one of the biggest crypto in the world based on 24h trading volume in October 2021 - with trading activity being almost as high as that of Ethereum. Originally starting out as a fun token based on the famous Japanese dog breed, the digital currency grabbed mainstream attention in 2021 probably due to its low barrier of entry: Even after its price spikes, Shiba Inu was one of the cheapest coins availalbe, especially when compared to the price of 99 other cryptocurrencies. Combine this with survey information that most consumers in the U.S. and the UK invest in crypto either for growth or fun, and Shiba Inu is probably seen by many as a relatively simple, "quick win" investment.
The market cap of Solana, a cryptocurrency connected with Decentralized Finance or DeFi, grew by 400 percent in the summer of 2021. Originally launched only in April 2020, the rapid growth in 2021 made the digital coin one of the biggest in the world in terms of market capitalization. The altcoin's move into the spotlight coincided with the growing interest in NFTs and especially DeFi, as Solana is one of the biggest blockchains in this world. It is seen as a direct competitor to Ethereum, in that it can power decentralized applications, but in a more efficient way. Solana is said, for instance, to reach transaction speeds that are similar to a VISA transaction whilst using far less energy than Bitcoin miners.
Dogecoin's market cap grew six-fold in January 2021 after tweets from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and has kept on growing since. By February 2021, the market cap of the cryptocurrency based on the famous internet meme had already doubled again. Compared to both the Bitcoin market capitalization as well as the Ethereum market cap, Dogecoin was not as popular.
Following NFT hype and growing demand in the DeFi community, the price of cryptocurrency Solana or SOL more than tripled during the summer of 2021. This had all but evaporated by the end of 2022, as a price of 143.82 U.S. dollars for SOL on March 25, 2025 was similar to the price of Solana in early 2021. The collapse of crypto trader FTX in 2022 especially impacted the cryptocurrency, as FTX and its sister firm Alameda Research sold a large amount of the coin in order to avoid bankruptcy. The Solana protocol is similar to Ethereum in that can allow for nun-fungible tokens to be created ('minted') or traded. Solana, however, uses a technology called 'PoH' or Proof of History, which allows it to reach high transaction speeds. The Solana Foundation - the creators of the protocol, based in Switzerland - claims they could reach up to 65,000 transactions per second compared to 16 for Ethereum. Additionally, Solano had no transaction fees or 'gas', unlike Ethereum, which had growing transaction costs. These two reasons combined - Solana being deemed cheaper and faster than Ethereum - turned this relatively young protocol into a breeding ground for NFT projects in August 2021.
The price of the native coin from BNB Chain (formerly BSC) grew by 50 percent in late 2021 but was much lower in 2022. In March 25, 2025, for example, a single BNB coin was worth more than 629.94 U.S. dollars - a value that very different to the all-time high of 600 U.S. dollars in November 2021. Regardless, Binance Coin ranked in the top 10 most expensive cryptocurrencies in 2022. Noticeable is that the price increase of BNB in November 2021 coincides with a similar price change for Ethereum (ETH) - a cryptocurrency where BNB initially originated in 2017 before coming on its own years later.BNB's history: From reward token in 2017 to an ecosystem after 2019As the name suggests, Binance Coin or BNB originally started as an extension of the Binance.com trading platform - the most used cryptocurrency exchange in the world. It initially functioned on the Ethereum blockchain network as an ERC-20 token, offering incentives to owners like reduced trading fees, affiliate rewards, or a lottery ticket system ('Launchpad') that let users invest in new, Binance-selected crypto projects. In 2019, however, BNB moved away from the Ethereum network and migrated to Binance's self-developed blockchain: Binance Smart Chain or BSC (called BNB Chain since February 2022). Here, BNB started to support a chain that initially did not focus on hosting decentralized apps but focused on high transaction speed and being able to handle large amounts of traffic.DeFi and GameFi: the main segments for BNBBSC, however, made significant strides in 2021 partly due to traffic overload and high gas prices on Ethereum as well as the growing interest in both Decentralized Finance (DeFI) and NFTs. Much like Cardano, Solana, and Terra, Binance Smart Chain consequently became a valid alternative to Ethereum: The total value locked (TVL) of BNBs blockchain within DeFi, for example, ranked only behind that of Terra and Ethereum in early 2022. Another area where Binance's blockchain and token play a significant role is that of GameFi - or 'play-to-earn' blockchain games that are powered by cryptocurrencies. Some of the more well-known and most popular NFT games like Alien Worlds and Axie Infinity run on the blockchain behind BNB.
Solana's trading volume increased significantly on September 7, 2021, compared to the previous and following days due to changes in Ethereum's transaction fees. Indeed, these so-called gas prices from Ethereum increased by around 300 percent on that single day. This caused many people to look for cheaper blockchains that - like Ethereum - provide an infrastructure for the development of Decentralized Finance or DeFi applications.
Ethereum miners made nearly three percent more revenue in December 2024 when compared to the same in 2023 - a decline from previous months. In the past, miners recorded increasing revenues due Ethereum's role within the boom of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and NFTs. This changed after Ethereum went from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake. Miner revenue normally consists of both block rewards, the initial reward when mining a coin, and future transaction fees whenever someone uses the coin you mined. This concept changed for Ethereum in late 2022.
Ethereum's price history suggests that that crypto was worth significantly less in 2022 than during late 2021, although nowhere near the lowest price recorded. Much like Bitcoin (BTC), the price of ETH went up in 2021 but for different reasons altogether: Ethereum, for instance, hit the news when a digital art piece was sold as the world's most expensive NFT for over 38,000 ETH - or 69.3 million U.S. dollars. Unlike Bitcoin - of which the price growth was fueled by the IPO of the U.S.' biggest crypto trader Coinbase - the rally on Ethereum came from technological developments that caused much excitement among traders. First, the so-called 'Berlin update' rolled out on the Ethereum network in April 2021, an update which would eventually lead to the Ethereum Merge in 2022 and reduced ETH gas prices - or reduced transaction fees. The collapse of FTX in late 2022, however, changed much for the cryptocurrency. As of March 25, 2025, Ethereum was worth 2,067.76 U.S. dollars - significantly less than the 4,400 U.S. dollars by the end of 2021.Ethereum's future and the DeFi industry Price developments on Ethereum are difficult to predict, but cannot be seen without the world of DeFi - or Decentralized Finance. This industry used technology to remove intermediaries between parties in a financial transaction. One example includes crypto wallets such as Coinbase Wallet that grew in popularity in recent years, with other examples including smart contractor Uniswap, Maker (responsible for stablecoin DAI), money lender Dharma and market protocol Compound. Ethereum's future developments are tied with this industry: Unlike Bitcoin and Ripple, Ethereum is technically not a currency but an open-source software platform for blockchain applications - with Ether being the cryptocurrency that is used inside the Ethereum network. Essentially, Ethereum facilitates DeFi - meaning that if DeFi does well, so does Ethereum.NFTs: the most well-known application of EthereumNFTs or non-fungible tokens grew nearly ten-fold between 2018 and 2020, as can be seen in the market cap of NFTs worldwide. These digital blockchain assets can essentially function as a unique code connected to a digital file, allowing to distinguish the original file from any potential copies. This application is especially prominent in crypto art, although there are other applications: gaming, sports and collectibles are other segments where NFT sales occur.