Launched around 2015, Ethereum is a blockchain network for Decentralized Finance (DeFi) that aims not only to profit from its utility token or cryptocurrency Ether (ETH), but also from building Decentralized Applications (DApps). Ethereum is one of the world’s largest Dapp and DeFi operators.
Its smart contracts, which are responsible for most of its transactions on the Dapp, are commonly used by people to buy or sell Non-Fungible Token (NFTs) on the blockchain. The smart contract helps to ensure that every time an NFT is bought or sold, the artist continues to receive a portion of the sales.
In 2016, ETH experienced a steady climb. The first week of January of that year, ETH had a value of 1 U.S. dollar, then by the following month, it doubled to over 2 U.S. dollars. This pace continued throughout the following months. By July of the same year, ETH had marched its way to over 12 U.S. dollars. ETH’s steady climb took more volatility in the following year.
The year 2017 was when ETH experienced its first rapid climb, where its spike has recorded its first all-time high. Between April and June of that year, ETH went from 40 U.S. dollars to a value of roughly 362 U.S. dollars. It experienced a few more spikes and plateaus, until the month of December, when it experienced its next all-time high which is 826 U.S. dollars.
In the year 2018, ETH witnessed its first thousand U.S. dollar value per 1 ETH. By the first quarter of 2018, ETH’s value was 1,386 U.S. dollars, 600 times higher than it was in 2016. However, its spike then quickly turned. By the end of 2018, its value was around 141 U.S. dollars. In 2019 and 2020, ETH experienced the dramatic volatility nature of a cryptocurrency. The highs and lows of the value of ETH were within about 150 U.S. dollars to 700 U.S. dollars during those two years.
The year 2021 was the year when ETH experienced its current highest value record. One of the many factors was the rapidly growing trend of the non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The NFT market exploded that year, and exponentially grew into a multibillion-dollar sector. Due to its smart contract capabilities, Ethereum was the most popular blockchain protocol for minting, buying, and trading NFTs. The demand for NFTs pushed a number of people into buying ETH. It was not a surprise then that the price of 1 ETH spiked up to 4,000 U.S. dollars by May 2021. And by the last quarter of the same year, it set a record of all-time high around 4,800 U.S. dollars.
