Updated: Monday, October 14th 2024
Live Ethereum Price Today
Ethereum has a price of $ 2,618.14 with a marketcap of $ 315,361,233,182 and ranked 2 of all cryptocurrencies
Price today is 6.61%, 24 Hour Volume is $ 20,192,567,375
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About Ethereum
Pegged as a distributed world computer, Ethereum is an open-source, public blockchain and decentralized computing platform featuring turing-complete smart contract functionality. Proposed in late 2013, by a then 19 year old Vitalik Buterin, as a platform that could hypothetically leverage the blockchain to store and execute computer programs across an international network of distributed nodes, Ethereum has become the most well-known and established cryptocurrency outside of Bitcoin.
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Ethereum Price Speculation
Just how high can Ethereum go? That’s the question we’re all asking ourselves as the number two cryptocurrency by market capitalization vaulted to unprecedented all-time price highs in Q4 2017 where it reached a price of $1400 per ETH.
And as it stands right now, it really looks as if Ethereum and its associate fuel “Ether”have unlimited adoption potential in the decades ahead. That’s because if Bitcoin’s appeal is as “digital gold,” then Ethereum’s appeal should be as the crypto revolution’s Microsoft 2.0. That’s because you can build a seemingly limitless number of utilities atop of Ethereum. To this end, civilization itself may be running atop Ethereum in a handful of years if the project can live up to is promise.
With these theme in mind, let’s dig a little deeper.
What is the Flippening?
To Ethereum enthusiasts, the so-called “flippening” is the day in which ETH overtakes Bitcoin as the crypto with the highest market cap. Essentially, then, the day in which ether becomes the #1 crypto.
Could it happen? Without a crystal ball, no one knows for sure right now. But what is clear is that however much of a “darkhorse” any cryptocurrency is at the moment ETH is one of the best positioned cryptos to one day overtake BTC.
To be clear, we’re not saying that will happen. But we are saying it’s possible.
One crucial factor to consider is the politics of the cryptocurrency space. Bitcoin bills itself as a “currency.” This automatically puts it in a position to be in competition with governments who mint their own currencies. And as BTC continues to make traditional currencies more pointless, some governments may want to lash out and crackdown on accordingly.
Whether these governments could succeed in hampering Bitcoin effectively is certainly up for debate.
But Ethereum bills itself in a different way that should allow it to avoid this antagonistic dynamic altogether. That’s because ETH is designed as a scarce network fuel. Likewise, the Ethereum project can sincerely avoid the legal and regulatory regulations of being a currency-killer while being a de facto currency.
In other words? Ethereum may end up having its cake and eating it, too.
In this light, Ethereum may be a safer bet at present even if Bitcoin were to continue to explode unchallenged in the years ahead, ETH’s future seems significantly less cloudy from a regulatory point of view.
Factor for Growth? The “Fuel” Dynamic
In a certain way, ether is loosely akin to traditional commodities like oil and gas because ETH has a fuel-like function on the Ethereum network.
In the future, then, ether should continue to appreciate in value as “digital oil” for the blooming Ethereum network that one day may revolutionize society from the ground up.
Just like there was an “oil rush” for so-called black gold in the 1800s, so too is there shaping up to be an “ether rush” in the 2000s.
Another Major Perk: Proof of Stake
The Proof of Work (PoW) protocol has been proven to work after years of successfully powering the Bitcoin network. Considerably more unproven? Proof of Stake (PoS).
The Proof of Stake model makes it so that mining will be come moot as “stakers” take their place. Stakers are just holders who will hold their ether in specialized stake wallets. The staked ether, then, will be used to verify and “stamp” transactions on the Ethereum network, a task that was previously left to miners.
What’s so lucrative about this dynamic is that it will then be stakers who are paid to maintain the Ethereum network, not miners. Stakers will be rewarded in ETH annually for helping to guarantee the network.
This could be majorly decentralizing, in that people won’t need to go out and buy expensive, specialized mining gear to become validators, instead, they’ll just need to buy some ETH and be holders, which most of us are right now anyways.
This could be an incredibly attractive selling point for the entire Ethereum project in the coming years, as users may clamor to become rewarded as stakers. And this dynamic may even contribute to the aforementioned flippening if enough users are won over by PoS.
For now, though, Ethereum’s staking system is still several months away. But it’s certainly something to keep an eye on.
Enterprise Ethereum Alliance
The EEA, as it’s better known, is an association of companies who are working with the Ethereum community to experiment and learn about Ethereum.
In the Alliance’s own words, it’s mission is as follows:
“The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance connects Fortune 500 enterprises, startups, academics, and technology vendors with Ethereum subject matter experts. Together, we will learn from and build upon the only smart contract supporting blockchain currently running in real-world production – Ethereum – to define enterprise-grade software capable of handling the most complex, highly demanding applications at the speed of business.”
Standouts in the Alliance include: BP, Cisco, Credit Suisse, HP Enterprise, Intel, J.P.Morgan, Microsoft, The National Bank of Canada, Samsung SDS, Stanford Law School, UBS, U.S. Coast Guard.
As these companies are ahead of the curve, others surely will follow. Which could help to power Ethereum’s unprecedented adoption in the future. No other cryptocurrency project is boasting partnerships like this so early on.
The Nasdaq and CFTC’s bitcoin futures are impressive. But having Microsoft and Intel tinkering around with Ethereum is in the same ballpark.
Long-Term Price
Well, let’s get really speculative. Let’s Bitcoin one day reaches the market cap of gold at press time, which is approximately $8 trillion.
8 trillion divided by 21,000,000 bitcoins = a BTC price point around $380,952.38 USD each. Woah!
Okay, then let’s say — just for the hell of it — that the BTC/ETH ratio stays the same between now and then (which would never happen, but this is just for loose illustration purposes).
The BTC/ETH ratio is hovering around 0.05 right now, so 0.05 x $380,952.38 = a ~$19,050 ETH price.
Now, remember: that’s just an extremely casual guesstimate based off of one conceivable scenario. But it does illustrate that ETH could have some major gains in the long-term. It just depends on how well the project takes off between now and then.
Ethereum Price History
Ethereum is known as the second-most-popular cryptocurrency with the second-largest market cap. As such, those looking to get a feel for the prices of cryptocurrency throughout its history will learn a great deal from the fluctuations associated with Ethereum. Take a look back at some of the highs and lows since Ethereum’s presale in July 2014.
Initial Price
As is the case with most current ICOs, the Ethereum presale offered a lower rate for purchases of ETH for early participants compared to those of later participants. At the beginning of the presale, July 22, 2014, participants received 2,000 ETH for each BTC they contributed. By the end of the presale on Sept. 2, contributors received 1,337 ETH for each BTC.
To put these figures into USD, we must look at the price of Bitcoin at that time. At the beginning of the sale, BTC had remained around $600 USD and by the end of the sale, it was at about $475, which was then a 10-day low. This means that those who participated in the first days of the presale got 2,000 ETH for approximately $600 USD, leading to a price of about $0.30 per ETH. By the end of the sale, without discounts and with a drop in BTC’s value, a contribution of about $475 received 1,337 ETH, leading to an ETH price of about $0.355.
Current Price
To put the following history of Ethereum prices into perspective, consider the current value and how significantly that contrasts with the initial presale price of about $0.30 or $0.36. At the moment, Ethereum is at $222.19, an incredibly significant difference from the original price.
Early Price Stability
The price of Ethereum stayed reasonably low for a long time until it increased slightly in 2016, with a steady climb beginning in 2017. In fact, ETH remained at about $1 or less until January 2016, at which point it started climbing and reached a then-all-time high of $13.25 in March 2016. The price briefly dropped slightly before getting up to a new all-time high of $18.70 in June 2016. Between then and about February 2017, Ethereum stayed around $10 to $15.
The increase in Ethereum’s price between January and May 2016 was largely due to crowdfunding for the Decentralized Autonomous Organization. This raised $150 million and was funded solely in Ether, lead to a then-all-time high of $14.80.
The Climb in 2017
Starting in March 2017, Ethereum began a steady climb that would earn it many new all-time highs along the way. On March 1, 2017, the price was at $17.55. By May 5, a steady rise had brought it up to $90.79. This would culminate in a high of $394.66 on June 12, with some smaller peaks along the way, such as $193.03 on May 24. Following the June 12 peak, Ethereum went back down to $155.42 by July 16, 2017, before getting to $308.02 on Aug. 12 and $391.42 on Sept. 1.
Concerns about the sudden increase in price led Ethereum to drop back down to $223.14 by Sept. 14. From there, however, ETH increased in price, although somewhat slowly. The climb began again in earnest in November 2017, when Ethereum started just below $300 early in the month and hit the new all-time high of $470.54 on Nov. 26. From there, the peaks continued, with a new all-time high on Dec. 19, 2017, of $812.50. From there, the price of Ethereum quickly shot up, reaching the current all-time high.
The Biggest High and Surrounding Highs
Although $222 is certainly a profit compared to the original price of Ethereum, it is actually a small amount compared to the all-time high for ETH. This occurred in January 2018, when the first half of the month was a steady buildup to reach that point. On Jan. 10, Ethereum reached a high of $1,417.38, which was topped on Jan. 13 by the high of $1,432.88. Within a few days after this high, Ethereum had already lost several hundred dollars in its price. Just a few days before this peak, there was a small peak in the price graph on Jan. 9.
Recovering from that All-Time High
Unsurprisingly, the price of Ethereum has steadily declined following that all-time high, with a few peaks along the way. Keep in mind that between January and October, it managed to go from an all-time high of more than $14,000 to just over $200. From the high, there were a series of peaks and valleys until March. The first low in the price chart for ETH following this all-time high was on Jan. 18, when it was at just $1,012.97. By Jan. 20, it was already back up to $1,150, but it dropped again to $984.47 by Jan. 23. The fluctuations continued going up to $1,061.78 on Jan. 24 and declining slightly before reaching $1,231.58 on Jan. 28.
From that point, the value of Ethereum shows a line trending downward without many upswings until we reached the current price. Ethereum reached a temporary low of $695.08 on Feb. 5 before climbing back up to $877.88 on Feb. 9 and $974.77 on Feb. 17. Since that point, we have only seen a handful of days when ETH was above $800.
April 2018 Low and the Rebound
Starting in March 2018, Ethereum experienced a fairly steady decline in value until it hit a low of $370.35 on April 6. From there, it rebounded briefly, hitting $703.35 on April 24, 2018, before dropping slightly and reaching the $816.58 on May 5. Following this point, however, Ethereum has experienced a more or less steady drop, with some peaks and valleys along the way. The most recent low was on Sept. 12, 2018, when it hit $183.03.
The Takeaway
When it comes to Ethereum or any other cryptocurrency, the fluctuations within the market are very real and have a myriad of influences. Ethereum will likely continue to fluctuate, and investors hope that further adoption of this crypto will lead to an increase in its value again. This is particularly the hope given the current value of ETH in comparison to its past highs.