[LIVE] Ethereum at 10: How Smart Contracts Built Wall Street 2.0

Ethereum just hit its first decade—and the blockchain that launched a thousand shitcoins now underpins $12T in annual settlements. Here's how the rebel network became finance's unavoidable layer.

From cypherpunk experiment to institutional rails

The chain that Vitalik Buterin coded as a teenager now clears more transactions than Visa. 40M smart contracts hum daily—executing everything from NFT trades to trillion-dollar repo agreements.

The DeFi takeover nobody expected

Wall Street scoffed when Ethereum launched. Now every major bank runs private forks. JPMorgan's Onyx processes $1B/day through modified Solidity contracts—proving the rebels won by co-opting the system.

Gas fees: The $64B tax on progress

Scaling problems nearly killed Ethereum in 2021. Today's rollup-centric roadmap finally delivers—but not before legacy finance extracted enough rent to buy several small nations.

The revolution got institutionalized. The code stayed hostile to intermediaries. Ten years in, Ethereum's proving that decentralization and adoption aren't mutually exclusive—they're just really expensive bedfellows.

Ten Years: Hackerspace to Infrastructure

It was this day 10 years ago, 30th of July 2015, that we changed the world forever.

We were a small team of hackers in an office in Kreuzberg in Berlin and we had just launched the @ethereum network.

The rest is history.

Looking back at the last 10 years, I am excited about… pic.twitter.com/bXHJEgmi2u

Developer Lefteris Karapetsas reflects on Ethereum’s 10-year anniversary with a powerful throwback to July 30, 2015 — when a small team of hackers in Berlin launched what WOULD become one of the most transformative technologies of the decade. As he looks ahead to the next 10, 25, and even 100 years, he challenges the next generation to shape Ethereum’s future: “What will you build?”

Happy 10th birthday @ethereum

Here’s pics from 10 years ago.

Been all in since the beginning and have no plans to leave anytime soon.$ETH https://t.co/2WvqrOolDs pic.twitter.com/e8aCVCBZRv

Gonçalo, Le Brute (@GNSPS) celebrates Ethereum’s 10th birthday with a nostalgic nod to the early days, sharing throwback photos from a decade ago. His post captures the unwavering dedication of early contributors who’ve been “all in” since the network’s launch in 2015.

CryptoNews will be covering the official “Ten Years of Ethereum: From Smart Contracts to a Global Financial Layer” livestream—an event that reflects on Ethereum’s past and looks boldly toward its future.

The lineup features Ethereum’s creator Vitalik Buterin, Tim Beiko, Joseph Lubin, and Ethereum Foundation executive directors Tomasz Stańczak and Hsiao-wei Wang.

Tune in and join the global Ethereum community as we reflect, celebrate, and chart the next ten years of decentralized innovation.