At 8:45 a.m. Eastern Time today, the price of Ethereum (1 ETH) is $2,132.80. That represents a $71.68 jump from yesterday and roughly a $269 climb compared with one year ago. Ethereum ranks as the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, with a current valuation of around $233 billion. It sits well behind Bitcoin’s roughly $1.33 trillion market cap but far ahead of the third-place option, Tether, at $183 billion.
Here’s what makes Ethereum different from other cryptocurrencies: It’s more than just digital money; it’s a decentralized computing platform, which means users can build and run applications on it without any oversight from a company or bank. The token ETH serves as the currency you use to carry out those activities. Ethereum’s initial coin offering (ICO) debuted in 2014 for just 31 cents per share. Since that time, its value has increased by more than 60,000%.
Ethereum’s initial coin offering (ICO) debuted in 2014 for just 31 cents per share. Since that time, its value has increased by more than 60,000%.
Early 2026 brought a sharp decline in Ethereum’s value for several reasons, ranging from recession concerns to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin selling many millions of dollars worth of ETH. The key takeaway is that Ethereum can generate massive gains and massive losses—about what you’d expect from other major cryptocurrencies. After Bitcoin, Ethereum sits in a distant second place in the rankings for largest cryptocurrency, but remember, Ethereum wasn’t originally created to function primarily as a currency; a decentralized computing platform was the main driving force behind its creation.
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