Since its inception, Ethereum has been known as a programmable BTC because it enables one to develop and deploy decentralized apps (dApps). Smart contracts make Ethereum extremely secure, auditable, trustworthy, and free from censorship.
It was created as an ever-expanding blockchain-based network to simplify the process of creating dApps governed by code and not a single entity. It has a few main components, such as:
Understanding how does Ethereum work requires knowledge of the above-mentioned components as they come together to validate data and add it to the ETH blockchain. But this process changed after The Merge, a transition causing proof-of-work (PoW) to convert into proof-of-stake (PoS).
Now, the current PoS situation doesn’t require expensive mining equipment for discovering new blocks, but now only 32 ETH can be locked away by any user interested to become a network validator.
Therefore, The Merge transition to PoS helped Ethereum project to support "sharding,". It is a concept for increasing transaction speed. The new PoS ETH network is also more eco-friendly than ever before. Eliminating the need for high-end and most expensive mining rigs has improved network accessibility and ethereum value.
Getting familiar with ETH price history is incomplete without mentioning the transition occurring due to the merger. During the 2021 crypto market bull run, ETH prices reached their all-time high value of $4891 on November 16. But after that, ETH has been tumbling consistently, mainly due to the broader market conditions. The merger could not revive ethereum’s falling prices, as they fell 25% in the 3 months since the merger.
It was only after the Shapella hard fork in April 2023 that ETH breathed new life into ETH meaning and helped it surpass the $2000 mark after one year. But analysts believe that the post-Merge slump impact is yet to be seen.
At the time of writing, the ethereum price is signaling positive movements in the crypto market as it trades north of $1850. With a 2.16% uptrend in its market capitalization, there is a chance that ethereum price today will increase further. One look at the charts reveals that ETH value is coming from 74% more volume since yesterday.
The price of ethereum is typically constantly changing, like the other cryptocurrencies. The ethereum price live usually means the current ethereum price depends more on the market situation than anything else. For example, crypto like ethereum do not have a maximum supply, unlike Bitcoin, which has a limited supply, how much one ethereum costs depends solely on its current price in USD or any other major fiat currency.
As the second-largest crypto according to market capitalization, ethereum is available to buy on several centralized and decentralized exchanges.
