$ETH
Sovereign Assets • Layer 1s • Payment Networks
native asset of the Ethereum smart contract platform
$ETH is the native token of the Ethereum blockchain — a decentralized smart contract platform launched in 2015 by Vitalik Buterin and others. Ethereum enables programmable money, decentralized applications (dApps), and full-scale DeFi ecosystems. After starting with Proof of Work, Ethereum transitioned to Proof of Stake in 2022 via The Merge, becoming more energy efficient while maintaining security and decentralization.
Use Case: $ETH is required for deploying smart contracts, paying for gas, staking, and participating in Ethereum-based DeFi protocols, DAOs, and NFT platforms. Users seeking yield can stake via Lido for liquid staking or hold positions while rotating gains into $KAG/$KAU for real-asset preservation.
Key Concepts:
- Smart Contracts — Self-executing code that runs on-chain without intermediaries
- Proof of Stake — Validators secure the network by staking ETH instead of mining
- Gas Price — Cost per unit of computation on Ethereum
- Gwei — Unit of measurement for Ethereum gas prices
- dApps — Decentralized applications powered by the Ethereum Virtual Machine
- Staking — Locking ETH to earn network rewards
- Liquid Staking Protocol — Staking while maintaining liquidity (stETH)
- Layer Two Protocol — Scaling solutions built on Ethereum
- DeFi — Decentralized finance ecosystem powered by ETH
- NFT — Non-fungible tokens minted and traded on Ethereum
- DAO — Decentralized governance organizations on Ethereum
- Web3 — The decentralized internet built on Ethereum infrastructure
- Layer One Protocol — Base blockchain settlement layer
- $BTC — Bitcoin, the original cryptocurrency and store of value
Summary: $ETH is the fuel of the Web3 economy. As Ethereum evolves, it remains the dominant programmable blockchain for DeFi, NFTs, DAOs, and Layer 2 scaling — making $ETH both a utility token and a digital asset for sovereign wealth strategy.
$ETH was proposed in 2013 by Vitalik Buterin, a developer and co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine, who envisioned a more flexible blockchain for decentralized computation. After raising over $18 million in a 2014 ICO, Ethereum launched in July 2015 with native support for smart contracts and dApps.
Ethereum was initially secured by Proof of Work, like Bitcoin. In 2022, Ethereum underwent its most significant upgrade — The Merge — transitioning to Proof of Stake, cutting energy consumption by over 99%. This milestone was part of the Ethereum 2.0 roadmap, which also includes future upgrades like sharding and scalability improvements.
Today, $ETH powers the largest ecosystem of decentralized applications, token economies, and financial primitives — from NFTs and stablecoins to synthetic assets and DAOs — making it a cornerstone of Web3 innovation.
– Largest developer ecosystem
– Most DeFi TVL
– Highest security budget
– Established network effects
– Best tooling and infrastructure
The DeFi standard
– High gas fees (L1)
– Slower transactions
– Complexity for new users
– MEV/frontrunning issues
– Scalability bottlenecks
L2s address many of these
– Core Web3 exposure
– Stake for passive yield
– Use for DeFi strategies
– Rotate gains to $KAG/$KAU
– Diversify across L1s
Foundation + preservation
– Stake idle ETH (Lido, Rocket Pool)
– Use stETH in DeFi for extra yield
– Optimize gas with L2s
– Time transactions for low gwei
– Compound staking rewards
– Rotate profits to Kinesis
– Price volatility (80%+ drawdowns)
– Smart contract risk in DeFi
– Gas fee unpredictability
– Regulatory uncertainty
– Competition from alt-L1s
– Staking slashing risk (minimal)