Ethereum

ETH

BUY ETHEREUM

$2,286.03

$25.53(+1.12%)Today

Market cap

275.87B

Total volume (24h)

12.19B

Volume / Market cap

0.0442

Circulating supply

120.69M

Day range (24h)

$2,252.42$2,322.35

All-time low

$0.433

All-time high

$4,946.05

About Ethereum (ETH)

Current ETH Price: $2,286.03 | May 1, 2026  | Market cap: $275,874,686,848.

What is ETH?

Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain network and the world's leading platform for digital smart contracts, conceived in 2013 and launched in 2015. Its native token, ETH (pronounced "Eee-th"), acts like fuel that powers the entire ecosystem.

What is a smart contract?

A smart contract is a digital agreement written in computer code that lives on a blockchain like Ethereum.  It automatically does something when certain conditions are met. For example: If you send me 1 ETH, the smart contract instantly sends you a digital artwork (NFT). The code follows its programmed rules automatically, 24/7. No human involvement is needed.

Ethereum's network is a vast, secure, public ledger that records every transaction. Traditional smart contracts follow their original rules, and can’t be changed once executed. Upgradable smart contracts can be updated for new features or bug fixes.

What is Ethereum known for?

Ethereum powers the world's largest DeFi economy across 100+ EVM Layer 2 networks (L2s) and thousands of EVM-compatible chains, delivering 100,000+ TPS total capacity. It pioneered smart contracts (2015) and hosts the most active global developer community (60%+ market share).

Real-world Ethereum ecosystem performance:

- Base layer: ~15 TPS, battle-tested security

- L2s: Fast transactions

- Ecosystem: Thousands of decentralized applications, $2T+ all-time volume processed

Recent & planned upgrades: Pectra (live May 2025), Fusaka (live Dec 2025), Glamsterdam (live by May 2026, with ePBS for MEV resistance), Hegota (live by 2026 with Verkle Trees for state growth).

How does DeFi impact the price of ETH?

Decentralized finance apps are one of Ethereum's top use cases today, and allow you to buy, sell, trade, and stake assets like ETH without intermediaries or banks. To start buying, selling, or trading ETH, all you have to do is connect to a leading crypto wallet like MetaMask.

DeFi is a global financial system, and an alternative to TradFi that is accessible to anyone with an internet connection, open 24/7 worldwide.

HOW TO BUY ETHEREUM

Price history

Today (May 1, 2026)	$2,286.03	+1.12%
24 hours ago (April 30, 2026)	$2,260.78	+1.12%
1 week ago (April 24, 2026)	$2,327.58	-1.79%
1 month ago (April 1, 2026)	$2,142.47	+6.70%
1 year ago (May 1, 2025)	$1,844.91	+23.91%

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ETH market moves

AI summary for information only. Not financial advice.

24h change: -0.04%. From $2,268.57 to $2,267.55.

Ether treasury firm Bitmine purchased 101,901 ETH worth $236 million, pushing its total above 5 million tokens or 4.2% of supply. This marks its largest buy this year and signals strong institutional demand. The accumulation aligns with Tom Lee's view of ETH as a store of value.
An early Ethereum ICO participant transferred 10,000 ETH, bought for $3,100 in 2015, now worth $23 million after 11 years dormant. The wallet's activation drew attention amid ongoing market volatility. Such whale movements can influence short-term price dynamics.
Ether dropped 3.4% to $2,244 as oil hit a four-year high due to geopolitical tensions and the Fed held rates steady. This extends weekly losses to 4.4% for ETH. Broader market risk-off sentiment affected altcoins like SOL and XRP.

May 1, 2026

24h change: -1.04%. From $2,294.10 to $2,270.30.

Firms such as Bitmine Immersion Technologies have bought $236 million worth of ether, holding about 3% of ETH supply after adding nearly 70,000 ETH recently. The Ethereum Foundation sold 10,000 ETH in an OTC deal to Bitmine. This buying reflects growing institutional confidence during market consolidation.
The roadmap features Glamsterdam in the first half of 2026 followed by Hegota later in the year, building on recent upgrades like Pectra. Developers are accelerating timelines to improve scalability, security, and potentially block times. These changes aim to boost network efficiency amid growing L2 adoption.
Ethereum daily active addresses approach 600,000 while L2 total value secured hits $310 billion. Interoperability grows, with $87 million bridged from Solana to Ethereum in 24 hours mostly via USDC. DeFi transactions dominate despite low gas fees and net supply growth.

April 30, 2026

24h change: +2.08%. From $2,276.87 to $2,324.25.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies purchased 101,901 ETH worth $236 million last week. This marks its largest buy in 2026 and brings total holdings to 5.078 million ETH, about 4% of supply. Tom Lee describes ETH as a wartime store of value amid ongoing accumulation.
Ethereum processed 200.4 million transactions in Q1 2026, the highest ever and double 2023 lows. This caps a three-year comeback with surging activity. It highlights robust network usage despite price pressures.
Ethereum's next upgrade, Glamsterdam, targets H1 2026 with proposer-builder separation for better L1 scaling. It includes block-level access lists, parallel execution, and predictable gas. Follows recent Fusaka upgrade in late 2025.

April 29, 2026

24h change: -1.05%. From $2,311.70 to $2,287.34.

Bitmine acquired 101,901 ETH last week for about $236 million at current prices, elevating its total to over 5 million ETH or 4.21% of supply. This purchase from the Ethereum Foundation highlights ETH's appeal as a corporate treasury asset. Analyst Tom Lee promotes it as a wartime store of value amid market volatility.
Ethereum price is consolidating around $2,300 even as ETFs see strong flows and treasury buys like Bitmine's. Reports note a 4-day inflow streak for ETH ETFs. This divergence between fundamentals and price action draws attention ahead of potential macroeconomic events like Fed meetings.

April 28, 2026

24h change: -0.58%. From $2,333.32 to $2,319.85.

BitMine Immersion Technologies purchased over 101,000 ETH worth more than $230 million, nearing 5 million ETH holdings. SharpLink Gaming added 39,000 ETH to reach 837,000 ETH valued at $3.6 billion. The Ethereum Foundation sold 10,000 ETH to BitMine, reflecting growing corporate interest in ETH as a reserve asset.
Ethereum's next upgrades after 2025's Pectra and Fusaka include Glamsterdam in mid-2026 for parallel execution, gas expansion, and MEV improvements. Heze-Bogota or Hegotá follows later in the year to further enhance scalability. These changes aim to increase transaction capacity and network efficiency.

April 27, 2026

Social recap

Data powered by Brandwatch.

Total posts

163,012

Reddit posts

1,337

X posts

155,956

News articles

2,814

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You can buy Ethereum (ETH) directly on your MetaMask wallet in just a few taps, without going through a centralized crypto exchange. MetaMask supports local and global payment methods such as credit card, debit card, bank transfer, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and other regional options, depending on your country or state. Buying ETH in MetaMask helps you avoid extra steps, reduce fees, and instantly receive Ether in your self‑custodial crypto wallet, so you stay in control of your assets.
Bridging crypto across chains allows you to move tokens from one network to another. With MetaMask, bridging Ether (ETH) is easy, secure, and cost-effective. Our aggregator finds the most efficient routes to move your digital assets from one chain to another. And with cross-chain swapping, bridging and swapping can take place at the same time in a single transaction. Meaning: instead of bridging one token from chain A and wrapping or unwrapping it on network B, you can swap one token from network A to a second token on network B, all in one move.
Staking ETH is a way of putting your crypto to work and receiving APY while securing the Ethereum network at the same time. MetaMask offers you three different ways to stake your Ether (ETH) depending on your preferences and funding:
- Pooled staking: Deposit any amount of ETH to stake via MetaMask, and receive daily yield. Unstake at any time.
- Validator staking: Deposit 32 - 2048 ETH per validator node, and let MetaMask run it for you. Receive yield every 10 days. Unstake at any time.
- Liquid staking: Deposit any amount of ETH to stake via third-party providers. Receive liquidity tokens representing staked value, and daily yield. Unstake at a time that is partner dependent.
With ETH, you can access DeFi platforms for trading and lending, buy and sell NFTs, play web3 games, manage your digital identity, and much more via thousands of apps and platforms. ETH can be used to cover transaction fees, send money to others, add to liquidity pools, stake for yield, or put up as collateral for loans. MetaMask makes it easy by combining buying, trading swapping, bridging, app connections, and crypto wallet management all in one place.
The Pectra upgrade, which went live on May 7 2025, is an Ethereum update that made the network faster, more user-friendly, and expanded staking capabilities. In other words, Pectra improved how Ethereum validators handle ETH, sped up transactions, and set the network up for future growth. Pectra is a key step in Ethereum's long-term plan to stay secure, efficient, and open to users and developers globally. Explore the Pectra upgrade in depth .
Ethereum’s upgrade after Pectra is the Fulu-Osaka upgrade, aka the Fusaka upgrade.
Fusaka, which went live on December 3 2025, is an Ethereum update that focused on increasing the EVM’s scale—with better speed, more efficient processing, and smoother Layer 2 integrations. It builds on Pectra's changes like allowing up to 2048 ETH staked per validator, easier withdrawals, and simpler account features, while adding improvements in data handling, transaction volume, and performance across networks. The goal was to achieve fewer transaction delays, cheaper costs to use popular apps, stronger security, and further growth without losing decentralization.
Glamsterdam, which is expected to launch by May 2026, and will bring in-protocol changes like enshrined proposer-builder separation (ePBS) to build blocks directly on Ethereum, cutting down on centralized control and Maximum Extractable Value (MEV). It adds tools like block-level access lists to manage data and keep regular computers able to run nodes, even with more load from Fusaka updates. This pushes Ethereum toward its Surge, Verge, and Purge goals with higher transaction speeds, more decentralization, and readiness for over 100,000 transactions per second on Layer 2 networks.

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ETH Sentiment

AI ETH updates powered by Brandwatch. Not financial advice. Last updated on April 30, 2026.

Bullish ETH indicators

A new privacy proposal could expand Ethereum’s on-chain use cases. Draft EIP-8182 proposes a shared shielded pool with ZK proof verification, which would enable private transfers at the protocol level. (Source)

Spot ETH ETF products continue to see inflows. Weekly coverage notes sustained ETF inflows into Ethereum-backed products, adding to institutional exposure. (Source)

Bearish ETH indicators

Short-term selling pressure is present across crypto markets. Media coverage notes intraday declines; ETH is down approximately -2.74% over 24 hours and -3.57% over 7 days, trading near $2,260. (Source)

A large dormant wallet has moved 10,000 ETH after nearly 11 years, worth roughly $23M at current prices, potentially adding to available supply.  (Source)

ETH remains correlated with Bitcoin and broader crypto risk sentiment. Reports note ETH fell -3.3% alongside BTC during a recent pullback. (Source)

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