Following BTC, Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Experts suggest that with the rapidly growing stablecoin market, Ethereum has the potential to surpass its previous all-time high and establish itself as the 'digital oil'.
According to the financial industry on the 29th, Ethereum will mark its 10th anniversary of creating its first block at 0:26 AM Korean time on the 31st.
To commemorate this, the foundation plans to live-stream the 10th-anniversary event worldwide through its official YouTube channel on the previous day, the 30th, at 11:30 PM. Alongside this, voluntary community events involving Ethereum developers and investors will be held in over 100 cities, including Seoul, New York, Tokyo, and London. A Non-Fungible Token (NFT) relay event reminiscent of the Olympic torch relay is also in progress.
According to CompaniesMarketCap, Ethereum's global market cap is approximately $463.5 billion, ranking second after Bitcoin (approximately $2.364 trillion). Officially launched on July 30, 2015, with the creation of its first block, it was led by eight co-founders, including Russian-Canadian Vitalik Buterin. Unlike Bitcoin, which emerged as a simple peer-to-peer currency, Ethereum was designed with the goal of being a 'global internet' capable of running complex applications. To achieve this, it was the first to introduce the concept of smart contracts, where transactions are automatically executed when specific conditions are met. Ethereum's structure, which allows contracts to be automatically executed without a central manager, has led to the practical growth of the blockchain industry by expanding into various fields such as DeFi, Non-Fungible Tokens, meme coins, and Real-World Assets (RWA). As a result, the industry often says, "If Bitcoin is 'digital gold', Ethereum is 'digital oil'".
Ethereum gained mainstream attention during the NFT boom based on its platform during the 2021 pandemic. As interest in digital identity for online interaction grew, NFTs, with their unique identifier values, were recognized as assets that could prove ownership. As NFTs gained global popularity, rare works from the iconic NFT project 'CryptoPunks' were auctioned at Sotheby's for 13 billion won. Famous celebrities like Eminem, Justin Bieber, and Madonna rushed to authenticate their NFT purchases, further fueling NFT investment fervor. Domestic conglomerates like Hyundai Motor also began using NFTs for marketing. Riding the NFT wave, Ethereum's price surged to $4,891 in November 2021.
After the NFT market entered a downturn, Ethereum's price dropped to the $1,000 range. Although it recovered to the $3,000 range with the Ethereum spot ETF in March last year, it couldn't sustain its upward momentum. Meanwhile, competing platforms like Solana (SOL), known for fast processing speeds and low fees, gained attention, and Ethereum's market share, which once approached 30%, has fallen to around 7% this year. Unlike Bitcoin, which has been setting new highs daily since Donald Trump's presidential inauguration, Ethereum has yet to surpass its previous all-time high from 2021.
This atmosphere is now reversing. As of 1 PM on the same day, Ethereum's price is $3,791, surging about 60% in the past month. Institutional investment demand is also expanding. The Trump family's DeFi project, 'World Liberty Financial', is known to have accumulated over 70,000 Ethereum so far. Particularly in the stablecoin market, which has become a hot topic with major countries like the US moving towards legislation, Ethereum is emerging as the central axis. According to DeFi Llama, more than half of the stablecoins issued to date are Ethereum-based. Ethereum ecosystem think tank Etherlize analyzed that "Ethereum is the most undervalued asset in the global asset market".
The market predicts that Ethereum's price upward trend could continue. Eric Jackson, founder of Canadian hedge fund EMJ Capital, said, "Ethereum has the potential to rise to a minimum of $10,000 and a maximum of $15,000 in the current bull market," adding that "a part of commerce is moving from traditional currency to cryptocurrency".
- Reporter Kim Jung-woo
< Copyright ⓒ Decenter, Unauthorized Reproduction and Redistribution Prohibited >
