ETH price over time

Given Ethereum's central role in web3, it is important to know Ethereum's past and understand the value created by the blockchain and its cryptocurrency. Here you get an insight into Ethereum's development and how the ETH price in dollars has moved over time, which affects you who want to buy NFTs.

Price development over time

Ethereum is a blockchain that was created in 2013 and whose cryptocurrency, Ether (ETH), was launched in 2014. Today, it is the second largest blockchain and cryptocurrency by market capitalization, only Bitcoin is larger.

Ethereum price dollar or Ethereum price USD are what many are looking for and are curious about when the market goes up and down.

We give you an insight into ETH prices historically to provide you insight of what has been built up and to give you a picture of how it has been reflected in the price, ETH price in dollars.

ETH price in 2015

Ethereum's first block was created on July 30, 2015, marking the official launch of the Ethereum blockchain. Since its launch, Ethereum has undergone several planned protocol upgrades, which are important changes that affect the underlying functionality of the blockchain.

Return in 2015

By the end of December 2015, one ETH was worth $0.93, corresponding to an increase of 210% since the ICO was carried out at approximately 0.3 dollars.

ETH price in 2016

In 2016, a decentralized autonomous organization, The DAO, raised USD 150 million in ETH to fund its project. The DAO was exploited in June 2016 when 3.6 million ETH (worth tens of billions today) was stolen by a hacker. The incident sparked a debate of whether Ethereum should perform a controversial 'hard fork' to recover the stolen funds.

This resulted in the network splitting into two blockchains: Ethereum (now Ethereum) with the stolen funds restored and Ethereum Classic continuing on the original blockchain. The majority of Ethereum's developers chose to continue developing Ethereum instead of Ethereum Classic.

Return in 2016

January 2016 was the last time an ETH was worth less than a dollar. By the end of December 2016, one ETH was worth $8.05, corresponding to an increase of 766% for the year and 2583% since ICO.

ETH price in 2017

In 2017, the awareness of cryptocurrency and Ethereum started to increase, and the Ethereum price along with several other cryptocurrencies skyrocketed. During 2017, thousands of ICOs were also carried out where basically everything went up during the year.

The growth of DeFi, CryptoKitties and other decentralized applications (dApps) in 2017 helped both drive interest in Ethereum and also clog up the blockchain when everyone wanted to transact with the virtual cats.

Return in 2017

By the end of December 2017, one ETH was worth $741.13, corresponding to an increase of 9,107% for the year and 246,942% since ICO.

ETH price in 2018

In early January, Ethereum rose above $1,000 for the first time before the crypto winter kicked in later in the year, with most cryptocurrencies seeing declines of more than 90%. Many ICOs that had launched in 2017 saw their value wiped out completely and the media declared crypto dead.

Return in 2018

By the end of December 2018, one ETH was worth $133.49, corresponding to a decrease of 82% for the year and an increase of 44,397% since ICO.

ETH price in 2019

The crypto winter continued throughout the year but DeFi and other decentralized applications on Ethereum continued to be developed, used and attracted capital throughout the year.

Return in 2019

By the end of December 2019, one ETH was worth $128.91, corresponding to a decrease of 3% for the year and an increase of 42,870% since ICO.

ETH price in 2020

COVID caused cryptocurrencies to plummet, just like other markets, before coming back in full force. The so-called DeFi summer started in the summer of 2020 where the majority of tokens linked to DeFi applications on Ethereum surged in price along with ETH.

This period resulted in the emergence of powerful alternatives to traditional centralized finance applications as dApps offering a range of inclusive financial services such as yield farming, lending, borrowing and insurance. NFT collections also started to grow in popularity and the first collection on Art Blocks, Chromie Squiggle was launched during the year.

Return in 2020

By the end of December 2020, one ETH was worth $1,314.18, corresponding to an increase of 919% for the year and 437,960% since ICO.

ETH price in 2021

NFT art and NFTs in general had taken off and exploded in popularity after Beeple sold his NFT artwork for 69 million dollars in March 2021. Bored Ape Yacht Club and the majority of today's most popular pfp NFT projects was launched during the year.

The EIP-1559 upgrade was implemented in August 2021 which made Ethereum transactions more efficient by using a system of block-based base fees and priority fees, making transaction fees more predictable than before.

Return in 2021

By the end of December 2021, one ETH was worth $3,675.79, corresponding to an increase of 180% for the year and 1,225,163% since ICO.

ETH price in 2022

On September 15, 2022, 'The Merge' happened when Ethereum went from using Proof-of-Work to use the more energy-friendly and scalable consensus mechanism Proof-of-Stake. The change resulted in miners being replaced by validators who lock in ETH in order to receive the right to validate transactions on the blockchain.

'The Merge' resulted in Ethereum's energy usage decreasing by more than 99% and the inflation rate of ETH decreasing by around 90%, overnight.

Return in 2022

By the end of December 2022, one ETH was worth $1,195.00, corresponding to a decrease of 67% for the year and an increase of 398,233% since ICO.