The history of Ethereum price movements

An overview of the price movements and hard forks of Ethereum’s past, with an eye towards what lies ahead.

Ethereum is a cryptocurrency protocol that is vastly different than Bitcoin, Litecoin, or other payment technologies, giving it additional value and potential. This article helps to understand the ups and downs of Ethereum price throughout its history.

The first version of the Ethereum protocol, called Frontier, was launched on July 30, 2015. At that time, no such thing as the cost of Ethereum actually existed. Yes, it was possible to draw certain conclusions about the value of Ethereum coins on the basis of preliminary sales data from July to September 2014 (~$0.3–0.45 for 1 ETH). But it was too early to speak about the price, which is formed on the basis of the exchange demand/supply ratio. There was one week left before the first listing on the cryptocurrency exchange.

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2015: The first steps of Ethereum

According to Etherscan.io, the first historical records regarding the value of Ethereum are dated August 7th 2015. On that day, ETH was added to the Kraken exchange and was valued at $2.77 per coin. Over the next three days, the price fell 4-fold to $0.68, most likely influenced by the rapid sales organized by early investors.

By August 13, due to the interest in the new promising asset, the Ethereum’s rate rose to $1.8, where it is held for three days (next time the price will return to these heights only in six months).

On August 18, the first significant event for the Ethereum network happened — the first 100 000 blocks were produced. By this time the price goes down to $1. Then, within two months, the price of Ethereum will steadily decline. This stage is typical for the cryptocurrency market. In addition, the investors of the Ethereum continue to dump their coins from the presale stage.

The local downtrend ends at $0.43 per 1 ETH in late October. It is followed by the rise to the level of $1.3 and three-month consolidation in the range of $0.8–1.

During this period, more and more crypto enthusiasts will learn about the ETH. A special contribution to its popularization was made by the conference for Devcon-1 developers, held from November 9 to 13. The ways of Ethereum development were actively discussed at it in presence of IBM, Microsoft and UBS representatives.

2016: DAO, hackers and Ethereum Classic

On January 11, 2016, the cost of Ethereum finally breaks through the $1 mark again and rushes upwards to never return to it again (at least that’s the case at the time of writing this article).

For two months, Ethereum’s price has been rising rapidly amid information about the previous replacement of the network protocol by a more stable version (Homestead) and reaches $15 on March 13. At that moment the capitalization of Ethereum for the first time goes beyond $1 billion. On March 14, when the mentioned Homestead hardfork took place, a sharp correction starts, according to the results of which by the end of April the price of the ETH decreases twice — $7.3 for one coin.

The next event that brought the price of Ethereum to the highest level for the whole year ($20.6) was wide media coverage of the success of the DAO project, which collected more than 12 million ETH (~$150 million) as part of the tokensale. It was one of the pioneers of the impending era of ICO, which chose ETH to attract investors’ funds.

However, what happened next is that it knocked out the Ethereum — taking advantage of a vulnerability in the DAO code, hackers stole about $50 million in ETH from the project on June 16, 2016. A panic started on the market, because of which the ETH price almost halved in 2 days, to $11. It was known in the crypto community that co-founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin supported DAO in every possible way, and that was one of the reasons why ETH was affected.

During the month there were heated discussions about Buterin’s proposal to recover stolen funds by conducting a hardfork to restore the network to the state it was before the attack. Against the background of these discussions, the value of Ethereum was seriously fluctuating: reaching $14.3 a week after the incident, it went even lower — in July 7 1 ETH was valued at $10.

On July 20, the controversial hardfork was still held, thus giving the start to the Ethereum Classic project, followed by its supporters. Two days after that, the Ethereum Classic, which had recovered to almost $15, went back to a steep peak and by early August reached $8.

A few days later, the price of Ethereum is recovered to $11 and within a month and a half it will consolidate in the range of $10–12.25. In mid-September, amid the news of adding support for Ethereum to Ledger Nano S hardware wallet, the growth resumes, which last time this year brings the rate to $15.

On September 22, DDoS attack on Ethereum network becomes known, as a result of which its performance slows down significantly. This news becomes a trigger for the beginning of a local downtrend, which lasts 2.5 months and ends on December 5 at $6. By the end of the year, the price consolidates in the $7–9 range.

2017. The great bull run

This year for the Ethereum begins at $8 mark. The whole January and February the price of altcoin is smoothly growing, as a result of which the Ethereum’s value comes to $13. This is the starting point for faster growth as the Ethereum was added to the social platform for traders eToro on February 23. On the same day, the number of unconfirmed transactions in the Bitcoin network reaches 100 thousand — more and more crypto investors, who consider Bitcoin slow and outdated, are looking for alternatives to invest their money. Many of them turn their attention to the Ethereum.

In the first decade of March, the price makes several unsuccessful attempts to break through $20 level and makes a breakthrough, which within a week brings Ethereum to $45 (on some exchanges, $55). The daily volume of trading on the Ether reaches $450 million. In March Ethereum goes up to $53–59 range and then consolidates within a month in the range of $40–50.

On April 26, there is a new price boost, which in 10 days leads to almost double price rise — on May 5, $95 for 1 ETH. Approximately the same days, the number of unconfirmed Bitcoin transactions exceeds 200 thousand — the network of the main cryptocurrency has become even slower. One of the reasons is that a lot of miners have switched to Ethereum.

However, Bitcoin was also in a growth stage, setting the direction for the market. Many coins are responding to this direction with stunning growth. ETH, which is being added to the AVATRADE trading platform on May 18, is also rushing to new heights — in less than a month its price rises 4 times (June 12, 1 ETH = $400). Investors who bought the Ethereum six months ago get the opportunity to sell it 50 times more expensive! The dominance of Ethereum on the market reaches its ATH — 31.5% (at the beginning of the year it was 4%).

Apart from the above mentioned reasons, such success is explained by the wide popularization of Ethereum in the crypto community and dApps-developers environment. ICO hype also contributes to the increased demand for the ETH — thousands of projects choose ETH as their main currency for accepting payments during their tokensales.

Such rapid growth is followed by a natural correction, which begins after a failure in the ETH network due to the increased fuss around ICO Status. The local downtrend lasts about a month and ends on July 16 at $150. From here begins a new wave of growth, which by September 1 again brings the Ethereum price to $400. The subsequent two-week correction coincides with the general market decline amid Chinese news of ICO and crypt trading bans and ends at $200.

Until mid-October on the background of news about the upcoming update of the Byzantium network price is gradually recovering. On October 15, immediately after this upgrade is activated, the same smooth correction starts.

Until mid-November, the price of the Ethereum consolidates in the $275–350 range, and on the 23rd of November, it breaks through the $400 level, which becomes a support for 2.5 weeks. All this time the ICO bubble continues to inflate, in which the ETH is still the main payment means. In addition, the Bitcoin is accelerating towards $20 000, continuing to drag up the whole crypto market.

On December 11, the value of Ethereum enters the last phase of growth in 2016, during which it reaches the level of $800. Further, like most of the cryptocurrencies in the market, Ethereum is corrected in parallel with 80% bitcoin drawdown and temporarily drops to $500–600. The year ends in attempts to break through the $750 level.

2018. Bears conquer the market

From the very first day of the new year, the rate of the Ethereum rushes up and on January 13 reaches the absolute maximum in its history — $1400. During this period, most altcoins also update their all time high marks.

That’s when the euphoria begins to fade, mainly due to the Bitcoin’s correction. On January 28, the Ethereum price makes another leap upwards, touches the $1250 mark and goes into a rapid correction. Further movements of the Ethereum are mainly the reaction to the movements of the Bitcoin, which will follow a bearish trend all year long.

On February 5, there is the first rebound from $700, which results in recovery to $900. On February 14, the developers announce the upcoming release of the Ethereum Go Iceberg client — on this news the rate continues to grow slightly and on February 18 reaches $1000. From that moment until the beginning of April there is a systematic descent to the level of $380. From this level comes the last significant local reversal of the ETH exchange rate in 2018, which increases on April 12, reaching $500.

This impulse triggers a growth wave that ends on May 5 at $830, from where the Ethereum price goes into a steady decline until mid-September (with small rebounds).

The era of ICO, which provoked the rapid growth of the Ethereum in 2017, has come to an end. Throughout 2018, its echoes have a negative effect on the ETH — thousands of ICO projects are selling their savings in the ETH, pushing its price down much faster than other coins falling during the general market downtrend. The decline slows down in early September at $180 and consolidates between $200–300 levels until mid-November. The community hopes for a reversal from these levels and sees this period as accumulative. The news about Constantinople hardfork expected in November contributes to the positive sentiment.

However, the network update is postponed, and then the whole crypto market is sent to search for the bottom for another six months — November 14 Bitcoin breaks through the level of $6000 and within a month is almost twice cheaper. During this time, the price of the ETH has managed to fall to the level of $85. By this moment, it has been shifted from the 2nd place in the rating of cryptocurrencies by capitalization for a month — this position is held by XRP at that time.

This is followed by the rise of the price to the level of $130–140, which marks an end of 2018 for the Ethereum. It means that since its January ATH ($1400), the ETH has become 10 times cheaper.

2019. First signs of price recovery

In the first week of January, Ethereum returns to 2nd position in the CoinMarketCap rating and its value reaches $160. By this point, almost all of the coins stopped making independent movements and simply synchronized with the price movements of Bitcoin — exhausted by the bearish year, the crypto community still did not believe in the possibility of reversal and expected further drawdowns.

And as Bitcoin went into a slight correction again, the ETH followed and by February 7 dropped to $100. From that moment on, the three-month consolidation of the Ethereum value in the uptrend channel begins. The local highs for this time are $160 and $180. On February 28, Constantinople hardfork finally takes place in the Ethereum network, but the price does not react to this event.

In early April, the Bitcoin price makes a jump of $1000, but Ethereum, like most other top coins, does not follow it and continues to move on the mentioned channel. Finally, on May 11, during the next wave of bitcoin growth by another $1000, market believes in reversal and the Ethereum price begins to move vigorously upwards, which results in reaching the $280 mark in five days.

As of now, Ethereum is trading at $127 level. Crypto investors hope that upcoming Bitcoin halving will push its price significantly higher and Ethereum will positively react to this move.