A review of major events on the ten-year journey of Ethereum, what new narratives does ETH have?

In the evolution of blockchain technology, Ethereum is undoubtedly a groundbreaking existence. Since the birth of the Genesis Block on July 30, 2015, this public chain has not only transformed from concept to reality but has also grown into a vast ecosystem supporting the world's second-largest crypto asset in just ten years, from a grand vision of a "world computer." It has led the revolution of smart contracts, giving rise to phenomenal applications such as ICOs, DeFi, and NFTs, while also enduring numerous challenges, including technical bottlenecks, high gas fees, and security incidents. This article will deeply review Ethereum's extraordinary ten-year journey, analyze its technological iterations and ecological expansion, and look forward to its future narrative in the context of institutional capital influx and the rise of emerging applications.

(Source: CoinMarketCap)

1. A Brief History of Ethereum in Ten Years: From Birth to Global Transformation

2013: Vitalik Buterin published the Ethereum white paper, proposing to use blockchain technology to do more than just the payment function of Bitcoin.

July to September 2014: Ethereum launched its crowdfunding, where 1 Bitcoin could be exchanged for 2000-1337 ETH, with an initial price of about $0.29/ETH. When it first traded in August 2015, the price soared to $2.77.

July 30, 2015: The Ethereum mainnet goes live (Frontier version), allowing developers to mine and develop decentralized applications (dApp).

2016: March Homestead upgrade, Ethereum bids farewell to the experimental phase. In July, hackers exploited a DAO vulnerability to steal 3.6 million ETH, and the community voted to reverse the transaction, forming Ethereum Classic (ETC).

October 2017: Byzantine upgrade, optimized efficiency, reduced block rewards, and postponed the "difficulty bomb."

2019: February Constantinople upgrade, enhancing the performance of smart contracts. December Istanbul upgrade, fixing security vulnerabilities and improving interoperability with the privacy coin Zcash.

2020: In January, the Muir Glacier upgrade postponed the difficulty bomb once again. In December, the Beacon Chain went live, marking the beginning of the PoS era, allowing users to stake ETH for rewards.

2021: April Berlin upgrade optimized the Gas fee mechanism. August London upgrade introduced EIP-1559, ETH began to be burned, and the deflationary mechanism was activated. October saw the first upgrade of the Beacon Chain (Altair). December Arrow Glacier upgrade further delayed the difficulty bomb.

2022: In June, the Gray Glacier upgrade postponed the difficulty bomb by another 3 months. On September 15, the Ethereum merge was completed! PoW was completely transitioned to PoS, reducing energy consumption by 99%.

2024: March Dencun upgrade, supporting layer 2 scaling (such as Optimism, Arbitrum), reducing transaction costs. In May & July, Ethereum spot ETF approved by SEC, traditional financial markets officially accepting ETH.

May 2025: Pectra upgrade, optimizing staking experience and enhancing network performance.

2. Who is buying ETH recently? Whales and institutions are ramping up their positions

Recent capital movements indicate that whales and institutions are frantically increasing their positions in Ether:

Whale Dynamics:

July 21: Trader James Wynn closed his positions on Ether (25x leverage) and PEPE (10x leverage), making a whopping $538,000.

July 20: A certain whale withdrew $12.22 million WBTC from a well-known encryption service provider, of which 70 coins ($8.26 million) were exchanged for 2,214 ETH. The mysterious trader "The White Whale" went long on ETH and SOL within a week, making a profit of $30 million. A well-known encryption service provider was hacked and then purchased $2.31 million ETH (average price $3,561). Two new whale/institutional wallets bought $212 million ETH (58,000 coins) through FalconX and Galaxy Digital.

July 19: A mysterious giant whale/institution continues to accumulate $70.7 million in ETH (19,500 coins), with a total of $435 million in ETH (122,000 coins) purchased since the 12th.

Institutional Trends:

July 18: Nasdaq-listed company Bit Digital spent $67.3 million to buy 19,600 ETH, bringing its total holdings to 120,000 coins. The Trump family's crypto project WLFI increased its holdings by $3 million in ETH (861 coins). Thumzup Media plans to invest $250 million to purchase crypto assets such as BTC, ETH, and SOL. SharpLink bought another 18,700 ETH, bringing its total holdings to 326,000 coins ($1.14 billion).

July 17: BlackRock went on a buying spree, purchasing 363,000 ETH (1.31 billion USD) in just two days, bringing its total holdings to 2.46 million ETH (8.9 billion USD). GameSquare plans to raise 70 million USD and intends to increase its ETH holdings.

3. What are the new narratives for ETH?

New Choice for Corporate Treasury: ETH Version of "MicroStrategy" May 27, 2025: Sports betting company SharpLink (NASDAQ: SBET) announced a fundraising of $425 million, all used to purchase ETH as reserve assets for the company. Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin joined the board, and SharpLink officially transformed into an "ETH Treasury Company," similar to the Strategy company in the Bitcoin space.

Ethereum ETF Explosion: Institutions Go Crazy Buying After the U.S. SEC Approves Ethereum Spot ETF in July 2024, products from BlackRock, Fidelity, and others quickly attract capital: BlackRock's ETHA has reached a scale of 21 billion USD, with an average daily net inflow of over 120 million USD. The ETH holding structure has undergone a significant change: the proportion of institutional holdings increased from 12% to 27%, while the circulating volume on exchanges dropped from 31% to 18% (the lowest since 2018). Price volatility decreased from 65% to 42%, coming closer to gold (15%), attracting conservative funds to enter the market.

Sovereign funds entering the market: ETH may become a new global financial infrastructure. Consensys CEO Joe Lubin revealed that he is negotiating with a "large national sovereign fund" to promote ETH as a financial infrastructure. Vitalik predicts a tenfold increase in Ethereum's performance in the next year, and Lubin further claims that ETH is the "gold standard of trust," with a market value potentially surpassing Bitcoin.

New Digital Dollar Economy: Is ETH Becoming the "Crypto Version of US Treasury Bonds"? The explosion of stablecoins (growing 60 times since 2020, exceeding $200 billion) has allowed millions around the world to hold "on-chain dollars." However, users not only need dollar cash but also require yields, investments, and financial services—needs that traditional banks cannot meet, and Ethereum DeFi is filling this gap.

4. Will ETH break through the $4000 mark? Is the altcoin season coming?

Ethereum leads the market strongly in July, with bears being wiped out!

Price rockets: Since July, ETH's market value has surged by 150 billion USD. Short positions have reached historic highs and turned into fuel, with leveraged shorts facing massive liquidations. After breaking through 3,700 USD, the next target is aimed directly at 4,000 USD (another 10% increase will trigger 1 billion USD in short liquidations).

Institutional Collective Shift: Altcoin Season Indicators Fully Triggered (Highest Level Since Last December). ETH perpetual contract holdings surged by $10 billion to $28 billion in a week. Institutions like BlackRock have seen net inflows into ETH spot ETFs surpassing Bitcoin ETFs for two consecutive days.

Historical patterns reappear: LD Capital reminds that in 17 out of 20 years, the ETH price increase has consistently outperformed BTC. BTC market share has dropped from 64% to 60%, while ETH market share has risen from 9.7% to 11.6%.

Key catalysts for the market: If the SEC approves ETH staking ETFs, it will trigger a larger scale of capital migration. Options market betting: Bullish spread trading surged in September and December, with large funds positioning for Q4 market trends. The trend of corporate treasury allocation continues (similar to MicroStrategy's BTC strategy).

Conclusion:

Ethereum has gone through ten years, growing from a grand vision to the core infrastructure of the Web3 world. It has not only continuously broken through on a technical level but has also led multiple waves in applications such as Decentralized Finance and NFTs. With the continued influx of institutional funds and the emergence of new narratives, Ethereum is upgrading from "high-risk crypto assets" to "global digital financial core assets." The evolution of this "world computer" is still ongoing, and its future potential is limitless.