Introduction: From Digital Currency to a Global Computer

Imagine that in 2013, Bitcoin, as the first digital currency, had revolutionized the financial world with the promise of decentralized money. But a young Russian-Canadian programmer named Vitalik Buterin was thinking beyond that. He observed the limitations of Bitcoin; a network designed solely for financial transactions with limited programming capabilities. His idea was bold: to create a blockchain platform that was not just a currency but a “decentralized global computer”; a system where anyone, anywhere in the world, could run their desired programs without intermediaries or censorship. This idea gave birth to Ethereum, a platform that quickly became the backbone of the decentralized economy, decentralized finance (DeFi), and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Today, in 2025, Ethereum is the second-largest asset in the crypto world, and its influence extends beyond mere financial markets into areas such as gaming, digital identity, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). In this comprehensive report, we will deeply explore all dimensions of this platform, from its origin story and key founders to its technical complexities, market dynamics, and ambitious roadmap for a fully scalable and decentralized future.

Section One: The Birth of an Idea and Creators Who Changed the World

The Genesis of Ethereum: A Journey from 2013

The history of Ethereum dates back to 2013 when Vitalik Buterin, observing the limitations of Bitcoin, proposed the idea of a more dynamic and comprehensive blockchain. In late 2013, he published the first version of the Ethereum whitepaper, which outlined revolutionary concepts such as “smart contracts” and “decentralized applications (DApps)”. While Bitcoin’s blockchain was primarily known for creating a peer-to-peer digital currency, Ethereum was designed as an infrastructure layer for building applications. This vision significantly changed our understanding of the potential of blockchain technology, transforming it from a purely financial tool into a platform for countless innovations across various industries. This fundamental philosophical difference is the main reason for the formation of extensive ecosystems like DeFi and NFTs on Ethereum.

The Ethereum development team, in 2014, raised over 18 million dollars in Bitcoin through the sale of its native token, “Ether”. A year later, in 2015, the first stable version of the platform, called “Frontier”, was released, marking the official launch of Ethereum. Throughout 2015, Ethereum’s value was less than 1 dollar, with its first transaction occurring on August 7, 2015. However, by March 2016, Ethereum’s price surpassed 10 dollars and reached approximately 774 dollars by the end of 2017.

Key Architects: Vitalik Buterin, Gavin Wood, Charles Hoskinson, and Joseph Lubin

Ethereum, unlike Bitcoin, which began with a mysterious figure (Satoshi Nakamoto), was the result of collaboration among a team of talented individuals with diverse ideologies. This team included Vitalik Buterin, Gavin Wood, Charles Hoskinson, and Joseph Lubin, each playing a significant role in shaping and evolving the project.

Vitalik Buterin: He is recognized as the mastermind and primary creator of Ethereum. Vitalik was born in 1994 in Russia and immigrated to Canada with his family at the age of six. His genius in mathematics and programming was evident from early childhood. He was one of the co-founders of the prestigious “Bitcoin Magazine” and, in 2014, received a 100,000-dollar “Thiel Fellowship” grant, awarded on the condition of leaving university to work on personal projects. He left university to work full-time on Ethereum. Buterin’s vision guided Ethereum toward a non-profit, community-focused project. He is also known for his humanitarian efforts, including donating 1.14 billion dollars in SHIBA tokens to India’s COVID relief fund. In 2018, the University of Basel awarded him an honorary degree.

Gavin Wood: He was a key technical co-founder of Ethereum and the first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the Ethereum Foundation. Wood authored the “Yellow Paper” of Ethereum, a document that formally specified the technical details of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). He also created the “Solidity” programming language used for writing smart contracts on Ethereum. Wood left the Ethereum Foundation in 2016 to found “Parity Technologies” and later created the “Polkadot” network.

Charles Hoskinson: He was another early co-founder and CEO of Ethereum. However, ideological differences over the business model led to his departure from the team in 2014. Hoskinson believed Ethereum should be a for-profit, corporate-funded project, while Buterin insisted it should be managed as a non-profit, open-source foundation. This conflict highlighted a fundamental tension in the crypto industry and ultimately led to Hoskinson’s departure and the creation of Ethereum’s main competitor, “Cardano”.

Joseph Lubin: Lubin is recognized as the business architect of Ethereum. He joined the team in 2014 and, as a co-founder, played a significant role in shaping the project’s strategic direction. He is also the founder of “ConsenSys”, which has developed many critical Ethereum tools and infrastructure, including the popular wallet “MetaMask” and the node access service “Infura”. In 2025, Lubin was appointed president of “SharpLink Gaming”, which raised 425 million dollars to establish an Ethereum treasury.

Examining the Founders’ Social Media Presence and Community Impact

The Ethereum community and its founders have played a significant role in the development of this blockchain. Vitalik Buterin, despite his young age, has become an influential figure in the crypto space and is active on social media platforms like Twitter (X). He consistently discusses blockchain philosophy, Ethereum updates, and social issues. Charles Hoskinson, with a strong presence on YouTube and Twitter, has also become a key influencer in the industry, sharing his views on a wide range of topics. His candid and sometimes controversial statements express his perspectives on the market and the future of crypto. This transparency and active engagement attract developers and users to Ethereum and its related projects.

Section Two: The Ethereum Ecosystem: From DeFi to Non-Fungible Tokens

The Backbone of DeFi

The programmability of Ethereum made it an ideal platform for developing decentralized finance (DeFi). DeFi is a financial system that eliminates traditional intermediaries like banks and enables peer-to-peer financial transactions through smart contracts. These contracts are coded agreements that execute automatically without the need for a central authority.

Among the most prominent DeFi projects on Ethereum are the following:

Uniswap: This platform is a leading decentralized exchange (DEX) that allows users to swap ERC-20 tokens directly from their wallets. Uniswap uses an “automated market maker” (AMM) model instead of a traditional order book, powered by liquidity pools. This model provides access to high liquidity and enables the listing of new tokens without a central authority. Launched in November 2018, the platform is now active on multiple networks, including Arbitrum and Polygon. Uniswap v4, deployed in early 2025 across 12 blockchains, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Polygon, and Binance Smart Chain, offers new features for developers.

Aave: Aave is a decentralized lending and borrowing platform that allows users to earn interest on their assets or borrow against them as collateral. The platform supports collateralization of assets like Ethereum (ETH), with the collateral value always exceeding the loan amount. Aave also introduced the innovative concept of “flash loans”, which allow instant, collateral-free borrowing, provided the loan is repaid within the same transaction. This feature is highly efficient for pure arbitrage strategies.

MakerDAO: This protocol is the creator of the decentralized stablecoin DAI, pegged to the US dollar. Unlike centralized stablecoins, DAI is generated in a decentralized manner through the collateralization of crypto assets like Ethereum (ETH) in a smart contract.

The Revolution of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)

Another significant innovation of Ethereum was the ability to create non-fungible tokens (NFTs). NFTs are unique, non-replaceable digital assets that verify ownership of specific assets on the blockchain. Although the initial ideas for NFTs emerged on Bitcoin, Ethereum became the primary platform for these assets due to its programmability and ERC-721 and ERC-1155 token standards.

Projects like CryptoPunks, created in 2017, and collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), sparked a revolution in the worlds of art, collectibles, and even online identities. However, the success of these projects led to significant challenges for the Ethereum network. For example, the popular game Axie Infinity was moved to a sidechain scaling solution called “Ronin” due to network congestion and high fees on Ethereum. This example clearly shows that Ethereum’s scalability challenges have spurred the creation of new solutions and ecosystems in layer 2 and sidechains. The largest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, allows users to buy and sell NFTs without intermediaries.

Section Three: Market Status and Key Metrics in 2025

Volatility and Trading Volume

Ethereum has experienced a volatile yet overall upward trajectory since its launch. Starting below 1 dollar in 2015, its price surpassed 10 dollars in March 2016 and reached approximately 774 dollars by the end of 2017. In 2018, Ethereum hit its previous all-time high of about 1396 dollars, but with the crypto market crash, it fell below 100 dollars. However, the upward trend continued from 2019 to 2021, with Ethereum’s price reaching its all-time high of 4815 dollars in November 2021.

Currently, in 2025, Ethereum’s total market capitalization is around 560 billion dollars, with daily trading volumes fluctuating between 41 and 55 billion dollars. These intense volatilities are influenced by various factors, including macroeconomic developments, Bitcoin market trends, whale activities, and significant technical updates in the Ethereum network.

Table 1: Historical Price Milestones and Key Ethereum Events

Decentralization and the Power of Whales

Ethereum is recognized as a decentralized platform, but on-chain analyses reveal an interesting dichotomy. Data shows that a significant portion of the Ether (ETH) token supply is held by a small number of large addresses, known as “whales”. According to analytical reports, Ethereum whales hold approximately 43 to 46 percent of the total circulating supply. This high concentration makes the Ethereum market fragile, as the actions of these whales can quickly cause price volatility. For example, a mysterious group of whales known as the “7 Sisters” sold 88.2 million dollars’ worth of Ethereum in a 15-hour period, demonstrating their direct impact on the market.

In 2025, the influx of institutional capital is also becoming a significant factor. Companies like “BitMine Immersion Technologies” and “SharpLink Gaming” act as “Ethereum treasuries”, purchasing Ethereum in large volumes. Reports indicate that 77 percent of all institutional capital entering the crypto market flows into Ethereum. This new type of “whales”, with long-term strategies aimed at asset accumulation, can inject greater liquidity and confidence into the Ethereum market.

Section Four: The Future Roadmap: Ethereum Poised for Takeoff

"The Merge" and "Shapella": Transition from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake

One of the most significant milestones in Ethereum’s history was the “Merge” event, which took place in September 2022. During this event, Ethereum fully transitioned from the “Proof-of-Work” (PoW) consensus mechanism to “Proof-of-Stake” (PoS). This shift was a major technical achievement that took several years to complete. The most significant impact of the Merge was a 99.95 percent reduction in the network’s energy consumption, making Ethereum a sustainable and environmentally friendly platform. However, contrary to many users’ expectations, the Merge did not directly reduce fees or increase transaction speeds on the main layer. This is a common misconception, and the real solutions for scalability lie in the subsequent phases of Ethereum’s roadmap.

The “Shapella” update, implemented in April 2023, allowed validators to withdraw their staked Ethereum and rewards. This action increased trust in the network and facilitated the flow of more capital into staking. The number of validators, which surpassed 500,000 in early 2025, indicates the network’s sustained growth.

Layer 2 Solutions: Current Accelerators

To address scalability issues and reduce the high costs of Ethereum’s main network (L1), developers turned to “Layer 2” solutions. These solutions are networks built on top of Ethereum’s main layer, significantly reducing the computational load by processing transactions off-chain.

The two main types of these solutions are:

Optimistic Rollups: These rollups operate on the assumption that all transactions processed in Layer 2 are valid unless proven invalid by a “Fraud Proof” within a specific time period. Projects like Arbitrum and Optimism use this mechanism. Their advantage is high compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

ZK-Rollups: These rollups use “Zero-Knowledge Proofs”, which verify the validity of a transaction without revealing its details. This mechanism offers faster transaction finalization and greater privacy.

Post-Merge Roadmap in 2025: Surge, Verge, Purge, Splurge

Vitalik Buterin has divided Ethereum’s comprehensive post-Merge roadmap into five main phases. These phases are designed to achieve massive scalability and enhance network efficiency.

Table 2: Summary of Ethereum’s Post-Merge Roadmap

The “Surge” phase, currently underway, focuses on the full implementation of “sharding”. Sharding refers to dividing the blockchain into smaller, manageable segments (called “shards”) that can process transactions in parallel. This significantly increases Ethereum’s throughput and reduces costs. The Pectra update in May 2025 is also part of Ethereum’s evolving roadmap, aimed at improving user experience and validator performance.

Section Five: Future Outlook and Investment Opportunities in 2025

Ethereum Price Predictions for 2025

Since the start of 2025, Ethereum has outperformed Bitcoin, with a 40 percent growth compared to Bitcoin’s 20 percent. This performance has attracted the attention of institutional investors. Despite volatility in 2025, analysts provide various predictions for Ethereum’s price by year-end.

Some analysts predict an average Ethereum price of around 2306 dollars in 2025, while others expect it to reach 3500 dollars or even 6324 dollars. More optimistic forecasts suggest that Ethereum’s price could reach 7000 dollars by year-end. These predictions point to factors such as high institutional demand, the development of Ethereum-related ETFs, and network technical updates.

Arbitrage: A Profit Strategy in the Ethereum Market

In highly volatile markets like cryptocurrencies, a phenomenon called “arbitrage” exists, which involves profiting from price differences of an asset across two or more markets. These opportunities often arise briefly and require quick action. Since crypto markets are global and decentralized, the price of a currency like Ethereum can vary across different exchanges.

Types of arbitrage include:

Inter-Exchange Arbitrage: Buying Ethereum from an exchange at a lower price and selling it on another at a higher price.
Triangular Arbitrage: Exploiting price differences between three currency pairs on a single exchange, for example, swapping Ethereum to Bitcoin, Bitcoin to Litecoin, and then Litecoin to Ethereum.
Cross-Chain Arbitrage: Such as buying Ethereum on the Ethereum blockchain and selling it on the Binance Smart Chain at a higher price.
Flash Loans: A type of decentralized arbitrage where a trader can receive a collateral-free loan in a single transaction, perform arbitrage, and repay the loan.

These profitable opportunities typically disappear within minutes and require speed and appropriate tools. In emerging markets and regions like Iran, where sanctions cause liquidity and prices in local exchanges to diverge from global markets, these opportunities are abundant. Using platforms like Soudjo, you can monitor the best Ethereum arbitrage opportunities across all Iranian and global exchanges in real-time and use them to generate profits.

Section Six: Arbitrage and Profit Opportunities

Arbitrage is one of the popular strategies in the cryptocurrency market, through which traders can profit from the price differences of an asset across various exchanges. These opportunities often arise due to differences in liquidity, varying processing speeds, and disparities in supply and demand across different exchanges.

Ethereum, with its extremely high transaction speed and very low fees, has become an ideal platform for arbitrage. In markets where speed is paramount, even a delay of a few seconds can mean missing an opportunity.

Ethereum, with its rapid block finalization, minimizes the risks associated with timing and enables the execution of arbitrage strategies quickly and efficiently.

You can access the best Ethereum arbitrage opportunities across all Iranian and global exchanges in real-time on Soudjo and perform arbitrage using the Soudjo platform.

Listed Exchanges for Ethereum

For buying and selling Ethereum, various platforms are available, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

Iranian Exchanges: Reputable exchanges like Nobitex and OKEx allow Iranian users to easily buy and sell Ethereum with rial. The advantage of these exchanges is instant verification and support for domestic banking payments. Additionally, OKEx supports over 700 cryptocurrencies, with a minimum purchase of 10,000 tomans.

Global Exchanges: Major exchanges like Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken also list Ethereum. However, due to international sanctions and strict KYC (Know Your Customer) regulations, access for Iranian users to these platforms is highly challenging and risky, potentially leading to account suspension and asset freezing.

Table 3: Comparison of Key Exchanges for Iranian Users

Conclusion: Ethereum’s Future Outlook and Its Place in the Global Economy

Ethereum, despite all challenges and volatility, has solidified its position as the second-largest cryptocurrency and the “queen of crypto”. This status is due to its unparalleled innovation in providing a programmable platform that laid the foundation for major ecosystems like DeFi and NFTs.

In 2025, several factors could contribute to Ethereum’s further growth:

Institutional Capital Inflow: With the potential launch of spot ETFs for Ethereum, a massive influx of institutional capital is expected to enter the market, significantly increasing demand.
Completion of the Technical Roadmap: With successful implementation of the “Surge” and “Verge” phases and resolution of scalability issues, Ethereum could achieve speeds comparable to traditional payment systems like Visa and Mastercard, significantly reducing fees. This will greatly enhance its usability for everyday users and developers.
Growth of the Layer 2 Ecosystem: Layer 2 projects like Arbitrum and Optimism currently handle the bulk of transactions, turning Ethereum into a hub for innovation.

However, investors must be aware of the risks. The Ethereum market remains subject to severe volatility, and regulatory pressures and competition from new networks like Cardano and Solana could impact its future trajectory. Overall, Ethereum, with an ambitious roadmap and a vibrant ecosystem, remains at the forefront of blockchain innovation and plays a vital role in shaping the future of the decentralized internet.