The Year in Ethereum: Lawsuits, ETFs, Technical Upgrades and Trump

For Ethereum, 2024 has been the time where both a bit happened and not much at all, it seemed. &nbsp,

There was considerable technology, but those simply wanting to make money from investing in Ethereum’s local gold ETH are a little disappointed—if the feelings on Crypto Twitter (aka X ) are anything to go by. &nbsp,

President-elect Donald Trump also put his weight behind an Ethereum-based task thanks to upgrades like Dencun, which made it easier to do network-related tasks. However, there was also a regulatory crackdown, which made many people believe that the SEC was working hard for the ecology.

The amazing acceptance of area ETH exchange-traded funds turned things around, but did not lead to an explosion in the stock’s value like it did with its Bitcoin counterparts.

Even thus, it was still an exciting—and noteworthy—year for the cryptocurrency behind the second-biggest gold in bitcoin. Here’s a look again at how it all went along.

Regulatory onslaught

After the Ethereum Foundation announced it was being investigated by a state power in April, rumours started to surface that the SEC might be coming after Ethereum entirely.

Then, Wall Street’s top regulator and one of the biggest names in the Ethereum space, software giant Consensys ( disclosure: one of 22 investors in Decrypt ), went to war. &nbsp,

It started when the SEC hit the company with a Wells see, a reminder of an impending complaint over stocks violations, regarding its famous Ethereum budget, MetaMask. A proactive lawsuit against the SEC was brought by Consensys.

The organization claimed that the organization had quietly considered ETH to be a protection for more than a year, and that Consensys would be punished for acting in defiance of years of government confidence that ETH is not a security.

The SEC finally brought a lawsuit against Consensys for allegedly using its MetaMask Swaps and Staking companies to engage in the unlicensed offer and selling of stocks.

A prosecutor tossed out the Consensys petition in September. Trump scoring has been both good and bad for the strong: The SEC does have a fresh, pro-crypto president if Trump’s get Paul Atkins is confirmed, but not before Consensys has had to cut its employees by 20 % in October. The company cited slew of lawsuits and violent regulation as part of the explanation. &nbsp,

ETFs make an impact

After the anticipated endorsement and significant album trading months of the place Bitcoin ETFs, industry observers didn’t anticipate Ethereum receiving the same approval, at least not right away, because the regulator had no idea whether the asset was a security or a commodity.

But in a surprise walk, the SEC gave a thumbs-up. And two weeks after first approvals, the place ETFs began trading in July. However, when the ETH cost didn’t go up, sadness started to appear. &nbsp,

The acceptance of the Bitcoin ETFs had caused the price of Bitcoin to reach a fresh all-time substantial after reaching an all-time high. ETH hasn’t been so happy: As of this writing, it still has a huge difference to similar until it breaks its 2021 report of$ 4, 878. &nbsp,

Yet if Ethereum’s cost didn’t take off like a rocket, the acceptance of the ETFs delivered one crucial gain: The SEC stopped calling ETH a securit.

Despite saying in 2018 that the property was a protection, retiring SEC Chair Gary Gensler repeatedly declined to comment on where the coin was. He also sued crypto companies after they allegedly sold unlicensed securities. &nbsp,

However, the ETFs ‘ approval demonstrated that the watchdog largely concurred that the property was decentralized enough to not be a protection. Even though conventional financing has had a hard time understanding Ethereum’s value proposition, Wall Street recognized ETH and its bitcoin as an asset class. &nbsp,

It helped that the really big titles, like BlackRock director Larry Fink, generated some speed. The BlackRock CEO kicked off the year by saying that he saw “value” in an Ethereum ETF, and that it was a stepping stone towards” tokenization” .&nbsp,

In March, the property manager launched” BUIDL”—a crypto bank running on Ethereum—and next later joined the fray with its own position ETF.

Trump is utilizing ETH, which he is using as well.

President-elect Donald Trump campaigned hard ahead of his victory to make America the” crypto capital of the planet” .&nbsp,

As part of his electric asset-focused mission, he helped build a job running on … you guessed it, Ethereum.

World Liberty Financial is a fragmented funding initiative that his brother Eric teased in August. Decentralized finance—or DeFi—is the crypto realm that wants to make taking out a mortgage or banking automated and easy via blockchain-based methods.

Most DeFi projects are built upon Ethereum, so it’s not a huge surprise that the Trump team went with the project, but still—it was big news for the community. WLF will provide borrowing and lending crypto services, the team behind the project said in an exclusive interview with Decrypt’s sister company, Rug Radio. &nbsp,

The project launched and had a somewhat sluggish token launch—open only to accredited investors—but it’s still early days. Although it’s a crowded market, sources tell that Team Trump also intends to introduce a native stablecoin.

Layer-2s take over

On the technical side of things, Ethereum got cheaper too—much cheaper. The network’s Dencun upgrade slashed transaction costs on its layer-2 networks. Such networks enable faster and cheaper transactions than on mainnet, and Dencun’s addition of “proto-danksharding” technology trimmed costs even further for users.

That’s the good news. On the flip side, rising use of L2s has drawn value away from layer-1 Ethereum, which some in the crypto space believe is responsible for Ethereum’s sagging price performance this year.

In fact, VanEck Head of Digital Assets Research Matthew Sigel said in October that unless Ethereum gets a “model change”, he projects that ETH’s price will only hit$ 7, 300 by 2030—as opposed to$ 22, 000 under previous projections.

Layer-2 networks are” taking more value from Ethereum” than previously expected, he posited. Luckily, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin and others in the space are considering changes, such as fee-sharing models, that can provide more balance to the ecosystem so L2s don’t become overly extractive.

edited by Andrew Hayward and Stacy Elliott