Ethereum (ETH)
Second-largest crypto and first programmable blockchain: DeFi and NFT foundation.
Ethereum: launched July 2015 by Vitalik Buterin. Introduced smart contracts, which enabled stablecoins, DeFi, NFTs, GameFi. Sep 2022 Merge: PoS, -99.95% energy, often deflationary. 12s blocks, gas in gwei.
In plain words
Bitcoin acts as digital gold, storing value. Ethereum is a platform that runs programs (smart contracts). That's why most DeFi, stablecoins and NFTs live on it. ETH has value because every transaction in that ecosystem needs it as fuel.
Example
ATH $4891 (Nov 2021). Mar 2024: $4070. Most DeFi (60%+ TVL) on ETH. Burned since Merge: ~3.5M. Validators: 1.1M (32 ETH each).
Also known as: ETH, ether, ethereum