10 years of Ethereum - the story

Ethereum will celebrate its 10th anniversary on July 30, and there’s plenty to celebrate.

In recent weeks, ETH has been climbing toward the $4,000 mark, edging closer to its all-time high of around $4,800. As the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Ethereum continues to serve as a cornerstone of the crypto ecosystem.

Over the past decade, both the blockchain and its native token have navigated dramatic highs and lows. And while challengers like Solana and XRP continue to gain ground, Ethereum’s central role in the crypto landscape has never truly been in jeopardy.

As the milestone approaches, it’s worth revisiting Ethereum’s rapid - and at times turbulent - evolution, and how the network envisioned by Vitalik Buterin and his co-founders has fundamentally reshaped the crypto landscape.

The origins: from World of Warcraft to smart contracts

It all began with World of Warcraft. While the idea for Ethereum came later, its origins can be traced back to this period, around 2009, when Vitalik Buterin was still a teenager.

After spending months building up his character in the popular MMORPG, he lost his character’s main ability (his “beloved warlock's Siphon Life spell”) due to an update.

"I cried myself to sleep," he revealed, "and on that day I realized what horrors centralized services can bring."

Frustrated by Blizzard’s control over the game, he began thinking about how to bring more transparency and decentralization to video games and software applications in general.

In a 2016 interview with Wired, he explained his motivation behind Ethereum:

“I saw everything to do with either government regulation or corporate control as just being plain evil. And I assumed that people in those institutions were kind of like Mr. Burns, sitting behind their desks saying, ‘Excellent. How can I screw a thousand people over this time?’”

A few months later, at just 17 years old, he discovered Bitcoin, eventually co-founding Bitcoin Magazine and delving into the still-nascent crypto ecosystem.

Building on ideas initially proposed by Nick Szabo - a key figure in Bitcoin’s conceptual origins - he published Ethereum’s white paper on November 27, 2013, outlining a blockchain designed to support decentralized applications (dApps) powered by smart contracts.

The name Ethereum is inspired by "ether", the invisible substance that, in alchemy, was believed to fill the universe. It reflects the technology’s role as a smooth, unseen layer for running decentralized applications.

The early days: a legendary ICO and first major crisis

Buterin’s project quickly gained momentum, and he was soon joined by seven co-founders, whom he famously likened to the 'Fellowship of the Ring': Charles Hoskinson (who would later found Cardano), Gavin Wood (future creator of Polkadot), Joseph Lubin, Anthony Di Iorio, Mihai Alisie, Jeffrey Wilcke, and Amir Chetrit.

Ethereum took root in Zug, Switzerland, now nicknamed “Crypto Valley” thanks to its crypto-friendly regulatory environment. But the early days of the project were far from smooth.

In “The Cryptopians”, journalist Laura Shin recounts the pivotal “Game of Thrones Day” of 2014, when a power struggle among the co-founders in Zug led to the ousting of Charles Hoskinson and Amir Chetrit from the project’s leadership. 

Hoskinson had pushed for a for-profit structure and aimed to become CEO. Gavin Wood, meanwhile, was informally lined up to be CTO. But Vitalik, disinterested in traditional hierarchies, focused on research, and humorously gave himself the title “C3PO.” His decision reflected his broader commitment to a non-hierarchical, open-source ethos.

The departure of Hoskinson and Chetrit marked a turning point. The reshaped leadership solidified Ethereum’s identity as a decentralized, community-driven protocol, resistant to corporate centralization.

The founders decided to launch an ICO before the mainnet went live. On July 20, 2014, the presale began. In just 12 hours, more than 7 million ETH were sold, raising the equivalent of €2.2 million. In total, the project raised $18.3 million over 42 days by selling 60 million ETH. The momentum around Ethereum also led to the creation of a common token standard. 

Ethereum’s mainnet officially launched on July 30, 2015. Of the 72 million ETH created, 60 million went to ICO participants, with the remaining 12 million allocated to the Ethereum Foundation and early contributors.

The following year, Ethereum faced its first major challenge. The DAO, a decentralized venture fund built on Ethereum, raised $150 million in ETH. But a vulnerability allowed a hacker to steal over 3.6 million ETH.

The breach sparked a major rift within the community. One faction advocated for a hard fork to reverse the theft and return the stolen funds, while others argued that such a rollback would compromise the principle of blockchain immutability. 

In the end, the fork was executed, and Ethereum split into two separate chains: Ethereum (ETH), which implemented the fork and nullified the attack, and Ethereum Classic (ETC), which maintained the original chain and preserved the data from the incident.

Ethereum 2.0 and the road to maturity

In the aftermath of the DAO incident, Ethereum continued to gain traction, solidifying its position as the second most-used blockchain after Bitcoin. During the 2017 bull run, speculation emerged around the possibility of ETH overtaking BTC, a hypothetical scenario dubbed “the flippening.”

The introduction of smart contracts positioned Ethereum as the backbone of decentralized finance (DeFi). Developers launched lending platforms, staking services, and decentralized exchanges, all operating natively on-chain.

Meanwhile, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) began to take shape with early projects like CryptoKitties and CryptoPunks. These digital collectibles gained real momentum in the 2020 bull run and reached a peak during the 2021 “NFT Summer,” when some collections fetched millions of dollars.

As the NFT frenzy cooled, Ethereum entered a new chapter. In September 2022, the network underwent The Merge, transitioning from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake. This upgrade slashed the protocol’s energy consumption by over 99%, significantly improving its sustainability and efficiency. It also introduced the ability to stake ETH directly on the Ethereum network.

More recently, Ethereum appeared to fall behind as Bitcoin attracted major institutional inflows and hit new all-time highs. Layer-2 networks multiplied, and competitors like Solana gained visibility, raising questions about Ethereum’s ability to maintain its lead.

Yet, despite competitive pressure, the approval of spot Ethereum ETFs one year ago marked a key moment of institutional validation. As Ethereum nears its tenth anniversary, momentum is once again building.

An increasing number of companies are now adding ETH to their corporate treasuries, a strategy once limited to Bitcoin. On-chain activity continues to climb: more than 96 million wallet addresses hold ETH, and over 53.3 million smart contracts have been deployed.

The ecosystem now hosts more than 4,000 active projects and its market capitalisation has reached over $430 billion with $80 billion of total value locked on the network. With over 15.89 million active users, Ethereum is not only thriving, positioning itself as the core infrastructure of a new digital financial system.

As traditional finance and institutional capital take on greater influence, the presence of Vitalik Buterin remains pivotal. In a future where decentralization could be at risk of dilution, Vitalik’s role as a steward of Ethereum’s founding principles is more vital than ever.