Original Article Title: "The Ethereum Decade: Key Events Review Who Bought In? Can It Reach $4000?"
Original Article Author: Deng Tong, Jinse Finance

On July 30, 2025, Ethereum will celebrate its tenth anniversary. Through ten years of ups and downs, what key events have occurred in Ethereum's development history? In the current bullish Ethereum market, who has been buying in? What are the new narratives surrounding Ethereum? Can it reach the $4000 milestone?

1. Retrospect of Ethereum's Ten-Year Journey of Key Events

In 2013, Vitalik Buterin conceived Ethereum. In 2014, he, along with Gavin Wood, Charles Hoskinson, Anthony Di Iorio, and Joseph Lubin, started the development of Ethereum and conducted a crowdfunding campaign. Ethereum was officially launched on July 30, 2015. As Ethereum is about to celebrate its tenth birthday, this section takes us through a review of key events in Ethereum's development history, reflecting on the highlights of Ethereum's development journey.

In 2013, Vitalik Buterin released the Ethereum whitepaper. In the whitepaper, Vitalik acknowledged that the birth of Bitcoin in 2009 was a significant breakthrough by Satoshi Nakamoto. However, Vitalik's true aim was to extend the underlying blockchain technology as a tool for distributed consensus.

From July 22, 2014, to September 2, 2014, Ethereum started its sale where people could use Bitcoin to purchase Ethereum. In the Ethereum launch announcement, the initial price of Ethereum was set at 2000 ETH per BTC, linearly decreasing to 1337 ETH per BTC within 42 days. This meant that the issuance price of ETH was $0.29 per ETH. However, when ETH first traded on August 7, 2015, its trading price was $2.77.

On July 30, 2015, the first version of Ethereum, Frontier, was officially launched, marking the official start of the Ethereum mainnet. The Ethereum network transitioned from theory to practice, where developers could mine Ethereum, begin developing dApps and various tools, taking a crucial first step in the development of the Ethereum ecosystem.

On March 14, 2016, the Homestead hard fork was officially released. This fork signaled Ethereum's move from an experimental stage to a more stable official version, laying a vital foundation for future development.

On July 20, 2016, Ethereum experienced its first major hack, known as the DAO hack, which resulted in the DAO fork. The DAO hack stemmed from an insecure contract that allowed a hacker to steal 3.6 million ETH. The DAO fork was decided by the Ethereum community through a voting mechanism, where any ETH holder could participate via a voting platform. Ultimately, 85% of voters agreed to the fork. However, some miners opposed the fork, leading to the creation of Ethereum Classic (ETC).

On October 18, 2016, the Tangerine Whistle hard fork was implemented to address urgent network health issues on the Ethereum network.

On October 16, 2017, the Byzantium hard fork was officially released. It marked the first hard fork of the Ethereum "Metropolis" development phase and included 9 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) aimed at enhancing Ethereum's efficiency, privacy, security, and more. It also reduced the block reward from 5 ETH to 3 ETH and delayed the "difficulty bomb."

On February 28, 2019, the Constantinople hard fork took place. The Constantinople hard fork aimed to improve Ethereum's efficiency and design more optimized solutions for smart contracts and decentralized applications.

On December 9, 2019, the Istanbul hard fork occurred. This upgrade addressed a denial-of-service (DoS) attack Ethereum faced years prior. The hard fork also achieved interoperability between Ethereum and Zcash and enabled contracts to have more innovative functionality.

On January 2, 2020, the "Muir Glacier" hard fork was implemented to delay the "difficulty bomb" by 4 million new blocks, approximately 611 days, buying more time for Ethereum's transition to proof of stake.

On December 1, 2020, the Beacon Chain started producing blocks. The Beacon Chain is a fundamental part of Ethereum 2.0, serving as a new proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain.

On April 15, 2021, the Berlin upgrade took place. This hard fork optimized the Gas cost of certain operations on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and added support for various transaction types.

On August 5, 2021, the London hard fork introduced EIP 1559, implementing a base fee system, a tipping mechanism, and a feature that allows users to specify a maximum fee. If there is a discrepancy between the maximum fee, base fee, and miner tip, users receive an Ethereum refund.

The Altair fork on October 27, 2021, marked the first upgrade of the beacon chain. The two main upgrades of the Altair fork include the introduction of the "inactive + slashing" mechanism and support for light clients. The "inactive + slashing" mechanism reduces the rewards of inactive stakers on the network, while support for light clients allows validators to access the blockchain without the need for a continuous connection.

On December 9, 2021, Arrow Glacier was launched to delay the Ethereum network's "difficulty bomb" until June 2022.

On June 30, 2022, the "Gray Glacier" upgrade postponed the difficulty bomb by 3 months.

On September 15, 2022, the Ethereum merge upgrade was completed, marking a significant event in the Ethereum blockchain's transition from a Proof of Work (PoW) to a Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. This upgrade merged the Ethereum mainnet with the beacon chain, a milestone in the history of blockchain development.

In June 2022, the Gray Glacier upgrade occurred. This upgrade once again delayed the difficulty bomb, providing more time for Ethereum to fully transition to a Proof of Stake mechanism, ensuring that the network's mining difficulty does not spike due to the difficulty bomb and maintaining the network's stable operation.

In March 2024, the Dencun upgrade took place. This upgrade introduced data blobs for layer 2 scaling, helping to improve the performance of Ethereum's layer 2 solutions, enhance network scalability, and lay the groundwork for reducing transaction costs and increasing transaction speeds.

On May 24, 2024, the SEC officially approved the Ethereum spot ETF's 19b-4 form, involving institutions such as BlackRock, Fidelity, and State Street. The 19b-4 form is primarily used for rule change applications submitted by securities exchanges, marking a key step in the listing of an Ethereum spot ETF. On July 23, 2024, the SEC formally approved the ETF's S-1 filing, allowing the Ethereum spot ETF to be listed. The S-1 filing is the final step before a fund can officially commence trading, and this approval signifies that the Ethereum spot ETF can enter the market for trading.

On May 7, 2025, the Pectra upgrade was activated. It introduced 11 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) aimed at enhancing Ethereum's staking, scalability, and user experience.

II. Who Has Been Buying ETH Lately?

1. Whale

On July 21, James Wynn closed his ETH (25x leverage) and PEPE (10x leverage) long positions, realizing a profit of $538,500.

On July 20, a whale withdrew 103 WBTC (worth $12.22 million) from Binance, swapped 70 WBTC for 2,214 ETH on-chain (worth $8.26 million), at an exchange rate of 0.0316.

On July 20, The White Whale, a top trader on the Hyperliquid platform, made nearly $30 million in profits in just one week. Over the past week, using 4 wallets, they went long on ETH and SOL, locking in nearly $30 million in gains, securing the top rank on the leaderboard.

On July 20, a hacker who stole over $300 million from Coinbase users 9 hours ago bought 649.62 ETH (worth $2.31 million) at a price of $3,561.

On July 20, two newly created "whale" or institutional wallets purchased 58,268 ETH through FalconX and Galaxy Digital, with a value of approximately $212 million.

On July 19, the "whale/institution accumulating ETH through FalconX" continued to accumulate 19,550 ETH (about $70.7 million). Since July 12, this address has consistently accumulated 122,000 ETH (about $435 million) through FalconX, with an average price of around $3,213.

2. Institution

On July 18, the Nasdaq-listed company Bit Digital (stock code: BTBT) announced that it used the net proceeds of approximately $67.3 million from a recent private placement offering to purchase about 19,683 ETH. Following this transaction, Bit Digital now holds approximately 120,306 ETH.

On July 18, the Trump family's crypto project WLFI spent 3 million USDC to acquire 861 ETH.

On July 18, the Nasdaq-listed company Thumzup Media Corporation announced that its board of directors had approved an authorization for the company to invest $250 million in cryptocurrency. The current proposed cryptocurrencies for investment include: BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, DOGE, LTC, and USDC, aiming to diversify its cryptocurrency investment portfolio.

On July 18, SharpLink further increased its holding by 18,712 ETH, bringing its total to 326,074 ETH worth $11.4 billion.

On July 17, BlackRock once again purchased 158,875 ETH worth approximately $574 million. This acquisition, combined with the previous day's purchase, totaled 363,445 ETH valued at $13.1 billion. BlackRock now holds a total of 2.46 million ETH, worth about $8.9 billion.

On July 17, GameSquare Holdings announced a planned issuance of 46,666,667 common shares to raise $70 million, intending to increase its ETH holdings.

III. What are the new narratives of ETH?

1. Treasury Corporate

More and more companies are accumulating cryptocurrency, emulating Strategy, and transforming into crypto treasury corporates.

On May 27, 2025, sports betting operator SharpLink Gaming, Inc. (Nasdaq: SBET) announced the signing of a securities purchase agreement for a $425 million private investment in public equity (PIPE) at $6.15 per share (company management team members at $6.72 per share) to issue approximately 69.1 million common shares (or equivalent securities). SharpLink will raise funds to purchase Ethereum (ETH) as the company's primary treasury reserve asset. Following the transaction, Ethereum co-founder and ConsenSys founder and CEO Joseph Lubin will serve as Chairman of the SharpLink Board and act as a strategic advisor to assist the company in developing its core businesses. From then on, SharpLink officially became an Ethereum treasury corporate, earning the nickname "ETH version of MicroStrategy."

2. Ethereum ETFs

Since the U.S. SEC formally approved the Ethereum spot ETF in July 2024, products represented by BlackRock (ETHA), Fidelity (FETH), and Grayscale (ETHE) have quickly become favored by funds. BlackRock's ETHA, with $21 billion in AUM, leads the pack, with daily net inflows of over $120 million per product. This scale growth not only reflects traditional institutional acceptance of ETH but also shifts ETH from a "high-risk crypto asset" to a "mainstream allocation target."

The increasing popularity of the Ethereum ETF has significantly changed the ETH holding structure — the institutional holding ratio increased from 12% in 2024 to 27% in 2025, while the exchange circulation ratio decreased from 31% to 18%, hitting a new low since 2018. This "de-exchange-ization" trend has reduced short-term selling pressure, leading to a decrease in ETH price volatility (30-day annualized) from 65% to 42%, closer to traditional assets (e.g., gold volatility around 15%), further attracting risk-averse funds into the market. ETH is integrating into the traditional financial system.

3. Sovereign Wealth Fund

On June 4, Consensys CEO and Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin revealed that the company is in talks with a "major nation's" sovereign wealth fund and bank about possibly building infrastructure in the Ethereum ecosystem. Lubin predicted that Ethereum will witness a decentralized supercycle and could become the core of a new global financial system.

Vitalik Buterin stated that the Ethereum blockchain's capacity will increase tenfold in the next year. Lubin referred to Ethereum as the "trust foundation standard" and believed that its value could eventually surpass that of Bitcoin.

4. Reserve Asset of the New Digital Dollar Economy

The development of the US dollar stablecoin has created unprecedented opportunities for Ethereum. Stablecoins have provided a channel for global individuals to access the US dollar — growing more than 60 times since 2020, exceeding $200 billion — with millions of new US dollar holders needing more than just digital cash. They require returns, investment opportunities, and financial services. Due to regulatory and infrastructural limitations, traditional finance cannot serve this vast new market.

4. Will ETH Break the $4000 Mark? Alt Season Approaching?

Ethereum's strong price performance has been one of the highlights of the cryptocurrency market in July. Kobeissi pointed out: "Since July 1st, Ethereum's market cap has increased by $150 billion, while a few days ago, the net short position hit a record high."

ETH/USD 3-Hour Chart. Source: The Kobeissi Letter/X

“Furthermore, many short sellers have also used leverage, which has further increased the pressure. Ethereum may soon reach $4,000.” If Ethereum were to rise another 10%, an additional $1 billion in short positions would be liquidated.

ETH exchange liquidation heatmap as of July 18. Source: The Kobeissi Letter/X

On July 20, LD Capital founder Yi Lihua posted: “ETH has broken $3,700. The weakness of the past few years has made everyone forget about the bull markets of 2017 and 2020. ETH's far superior performance to BTC has been validated in this round. In this bull market, do not short, at the very least hold ETH, and you will not miss this market cycle.”

In its market weekly report released on July 21, QCP Capital stated: Several altcoin season indicators have surpassed 50, reaching the highest level since December of last year. In addition, the open interest in ETH perpetual contracts has surged from $18 billion to $28 billion within a week, indicating that the altcoin season may have officially begun. QCP pointed out that institutional investors are the leaders of this cycle, benefiting from the clarification of stablecoin regulations brought about by the GENIUS Act, and corporate treasuries have begun to hold ETH, SOL, XRP, and ADA, among other L1 public chain tokens, similar to BTC's role in financial allocations in Strategy and Metaplanet.

If ETH gains SEC approval for its spot ETF in the coming months, it may attract funds from BTC ETFs to ETH, further unleashing its profit potential. In fact, last week, the net daily inflows into ETH spot ETFs exceeded BTC for two consecutive days, demonstrating a surge in institutional interest in ETH, with BlackRock also expressing confidence in its staking ETH ETF.

Furthermore, bullish spread trading is active in the ETH options market, with large bullish spread positions established for September and December expiries, highlighting market optimism for the fourth quarter. The current BTC market dominance has fallen from 64% to 60%, while ETH's market share has risen from 9.7% to 11.6%. If this trend continues, a new altcoin season may already be underway. QCP stated that it will continue to monitor relevant signals and provide updates in a timely manner.

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