Ethereum

The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap and the dominant smart-contract platform. Launched July 2015 by Vitalik Buterin and co-founders. Transitioned from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake in September 2022 (the Merge). Native token is ETH. Ecosystem hosts the majority of DeFi, NFTs, and Layer 2 activity. EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) is the runtime standard copied by many other chains.