If You Invested $1,000 In Ethereum At Launch, Here's How Much You'd Have Today

Cryptocurrency Ethereum ETH/USD has soared over the past week, but remains well below the all-time highs set back in 2021.

While Ethereum’s gains in 2024 are less than those of other cryptocurrencies, the second-largest crypto still trades significantly higher than when it launched in 2015.

What Happened: Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin proposed the digital currency via a 2014 white paper, with the goal of adding scripting to make it easier for application development and to set up binding contracts.

Ethereum was officially launched on July 30, 2015. During its first calendar year, Ethereum traded between $0.42 and $1.39 with a starting price of around $0.74 according to SoFi. The first Ethereum transaction was carried out on Aug. 7, 2015, according to Global Data.

Ethereum gained momentum thanks to its listing on cryptocurrency platform Coinbase Global Inc COIN. It became the second-ever cryptocurrency, after Bitcoin BTC/USD, to be listed on the platform.

Over the years there have been several major events and updates to Ethereum including the fork of Ethereum 2.0 and Ethereum Classic ETC/USD.

Ethereum saw increased attention and a surge in valuation related to the boom of non-fungible tokens in 2021. Many of the NFTs were built on the Ethereum blockchain, including CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club. A record sale of a Beeple NFT created interest in NFTs and Ethereum.

Today, Ethereum is the second most valuable cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $403.1 billion.

Read Also: 4 Reasons Why Ethereum Will Still Outperform Bitcoin—Analyst Sees $4,000 To $6,000 As Target

Investing $1,000 in Ethereum: An investment in the second largest cryptocurrency the year it launched would have generated a strong return for investors.

While it was harder to invest in Ethereum prior to its inclusion on major cryptocurrency exchanges, investors were able to purchase the crypto after it launched.

Based on a starting price of $0.74, an investor could have purchased 1,351.35 ETH at the time of launch.

The $1,000 investment in Ethereum at launch would be worth $4,512,009.00 today based on a price of $3,338.89 at the time of writing.

At its all-time high of $4,815 set in November 2021, the $1,000 investment in Ethereum at the time of launch would have been worth $6,506,750.25.

Ethereum has traded between $1,988.12 and $4,092.28 over the last 52 weeks. There is no guarantee that the cryptocurrency will return to yearly or all-time highs.

While many missed out on investing in Ethereum in the early days, the exercise shows that sometimes investing a small amount in a high-conviction idea can have a huge payout in the future.

Ethereum is nearing its one-year high and could be headed towards its all-time high set on Nov. 16, 2021.

Read Next:

• The Butterfly Effect: Here’s The Crazy Story Of How World Of Warcraft Led To The Creation Of Ethereum

This article was previously published by Benzinga and has been updated.

Image created using artificial intelligence via Midjourney.