Two days ago, on July 30, Ethereum celebrated its 8th anniversary! On July 30, 2015, the first block of the main Ethereum network was created, accompanied by a blog entry announcing the start of the blockchain. Over the past 8 years, Ethereum has made significant progress, and to commemorate this milestone, let’s highlight some of its current indicators.
Onchain data
Onchain metrics reveal impressive statistics about Euthereum’s growth:
⛏ 17,8 million blocks have been finalized;
💸 2 billion transactions have been successfully settled;
👛 240 million unique addresses have been created.
Throughout the years. Euthereum has undergone numerous updates, but the biggest and most important one happened almost a year ago — the transition from the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus. To better understand the implications of this change, you can check out our explainer: The Merge is coming.
At the moment, the number of validators who stake Ether and maintain the network has exceeded 700,000, with 22.4 million coins being staked. The transition to Proof-of-Stake has reduced the rate at which new coins are produced. Coupled with the mechanism of burning ETH with each transaction, it has resulted in a reduction of the overall supply.
Market situation
The current supply of ETH is approximately 120 million coins. Since switching to PoS, it has decreased by 301,519 coins. According to the ultrasound.money, if Ethereum had continued to operate on PoW, the supply would have increased by about 3.3 million coins. The white line on the chart below simulates the growth of the ETH supply under PoW.
The current tokenomics is more attractive for holders because, with the same level of demand, an asset with a lower supply tends to have higher value.
Over the past eight years, Ethereum has firmly occupied the status of the second-largest cryptocurrency. Its current capitalization stands at ≈$225.5 billion, representing 19% of the total crypto market capitalization.
As of now, the price of ETH is $1,830 with its all-time high (ATH) recorded on November 16, 2021, at $4,891. Presently, the price is at a critical point, as the data from Dune indicated that around 60% of addresses holding staked ETH are currently at a loss. So, the situation raises the possibility that an increase in ETH price could trigger a wave of stakers withdrawing and selling their coins. Read more about what is going on with the ETH being locked in staking.
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