Ethereum has had a remarkable journey so far. Today we celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Ethereum’s genesis block and a decade of non-stop uptime, even through powerful attacks and major protocol upgrades. Ethereum is the definition of antifragile. Since 2015, Ethereum has continually evolved and matured to embody its destiny: to serve as a reliable trust layer for a fast-growing digital world.
When we started, the world was just beginning to grasp the potential of decentralized technology. Now, Ethereum stands as the premier infrastructure for verifiable, programmable trust, shifting from a speculative technology to investable, mission-critical infrastructure that will power the next generation global economy. It already settles trillions of dollars of value annually.
Ethereum builds trust directly into the infrastructure of the internet. This open, global layer is a new kind of software—we can call it "Trustware"—that has created a new class of information that is verifiable, incorruptible, transparent, and accessible to all. Unlike the opaque algorithms and centralized control characteristic of the rest of the modern internet, Ethereum enables systems where rules are enforced by math and code, not gatekeepers, proving fairness rather than just promising it.
Consensys was founded in 2014. As an ecosystem, our journey has been one of continuous building and adaptation. We've focused on creating scalable infrastructure for the decentralized protocol’s future. The Ethereum ecosystem has shown immense resilience, operating without downtime for a decade, absorbing shocks (including sustained attacks from powerful nation states), and continuing to evolve through incredible technical upgrades like the Merge.
A key aspect of Ethereum's success is its economic gravity. It anchors the largest open financial ecosystem in the world, with growing participation from traditional institutions and users. We believe that the future economy will be built on decentralized protocol foundations, and that Ethereum will be the foundational element of the increasingly decentralized future. We've seen major traditional economy institutions like BlackRock, JPMorgan, Visa and many more build their next generation offerings on Ethereum. We’ve seen the uptake of ETH as a treasury asset and broad embrace of stablecoins, indicating that adoption is moving well beyond experimentation and into integration as TradFi onboards to DeFi. This progression provides more validation for Ethereum’s security model and reliability; the more ETH that gets locked away in staking, the better the economic security of the network becomes. And the more valuable ETH becomes, the greater decentralized economic bandwidth it confers to transactions, processes, agreements and its use as collateral.
As we celebrate this milestone, we also recognize that the global economy is transforming. I don’t want to say that the banking and traditional financial industry are about to experience their Blockbuster moment, because they are smart and will adapt and thrive in the decentralized finance context. Better to say that Ethereum offers a borderless, transparent, and decentralized financial architecture that can deliver the world of finance its protocol moment, opening up entirely new avenues of growth and innovation. Most importantly, it enables far greater economic and political agency for people and communities.
Today, our community will be celebrating Ethereum's 10th anniversary by ringing the closing bell at NASDAQ. The symbolism of this is profound: the closing of Ethereum's first chapter, and the opening of the next. After ten years, the inflection point has arrived, and mass adoption is upon us. Wall Street was just a river away from the industrial Brooklyn loft where Consensys was founded over 10 years ago, but at the time it felt like an ocean. But I can't say I didn't see this moment coming: the technology, and its promise, is irresistible. We worked to seed a new ecosystem and onboard TradFi to DeFi, with a mission to rebuild the global financial system. And together, we're doing it.
I have never felt so energized and optimistic about the future of Ethereum. Looking ahead, we—Consensys and the broader ecosystem—are committed to continuing to build and evolve. And we are committed to remaining vigilant to protect progressive decentralization. Beyond undergirding a new protocol-based global financial system, Ethereum will serve as critical infrastructure for AI agents and data marketplaces, stablecoins, and decentralized identity systems. With the regulatory winds reversing in the US, gale force gusts now fill our sails. The excitement is palpable. We are about to land the most profound paradigm shift in recorded history: the societal transition to decentralized trust.
Ethereum is no longer an experiment; it is the new foundation for digital trust that is enabling a more secure, inclusive, and interoperable global economy. For this 10-year anniversary, we celebrate how far we’ve come. But we are just getting started.