Ethereum Classic Price Today

The current real-time Ethereum Classic price is $22.99 . ETC price has plummeted by 0.47% in the last day and increased by 9.64% in the last seven days. It’s important to note that the current Ethereum Classic market capitalization is $3,400,450,359. The maximum supply is 210,700,000.00 ETC coins, with a circulating supply of 147,896,243.74. ETC is ranked #26 in terms of market cap.

What is Ethereum Classic

Ethereum Classic (ETC) is the original version of the Ethereum blockchain. It was created following a hard fork that resulted from a $50 million hack to The DAO. 

While the majority of the Ethereum community agreed to roll back the blockchain to reverse the hack, a group of users argued that the network’s immutability should be maintained, leading to the creation of Ethereum Classic. Although the community controls Ethereum Classic and the project has distinguished itself from Ethereum, it was technically created by Vitalik Buterin. 

Since the hard fork separated the two networks, Ethereum Classic has continued development and has differentiated itself from the more used Ethereum network in several ways. For example, Ethereum Classic utilizes the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm, while Ethereum has switched to Proof-of-Stake (PoS). 

How Ethereum Classic Works

Ethereum Classic is a pre-fork version of the Ethereum network, launched in 2015. Although the projects share a name, Ethereum Classic has worked hard to differentiate itself from Ethereum, with the gap between the two networks growing with every new update. 

Unlike Ethereum, which has switched to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm, Ethereum Classic utilizes Proof-of-Work for transaction validation. While the network has suffered several hacks, including a 51% attack in 2020, Ethereum Classic is now much safer as the number of miners validating transactions on the network has increased.

Like the more popular Ethereum network, Ethereum Classic offers smart contract functionality, making it the biggest PoW smart contract-enabled blockchain. As such, developers can build self-executing Decentralized Applications (dApps) on the Ethereum Classic network. 

What’s Unique About Ethereum Classic

One of the most significant aspects of Ethereum Classic separating it from other networks is its focus on decentralization and community control. The project is not controlled by a central authority. Instead, the community creates and votes on proposals. This focus on decentralization is also a core reason the network maintained the PoW consensus algorithm. 

Many smart contract networks have implemented systems like sharding and parachains, which increase the throughput of a network by not requiring a full version of the blockchain to be replicated across validator nodes. However, Ethereum Classic is fully replicated, which makes it much harder to alter the network maliciously, resulting in greater security.

Ethereum Classic vs. Ethereum

While both networks share some of the same underlying architecture, there are several key differences between Ethereum and Ethereum Classic.

Most notably, Ethereum Classic retains the Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism for transaction validation. While Ethereum has switched to Proof-of-Stake, there are no plans at present for Ethereum Classic to follow suit and introduce crypto staking.  

As time passes and new proposals are implemented across both networks, Ethereum and Ethereum Classic become more distinct. The roadmaps for each project show that Ethereum Classic focuses on scalability, while Ethereum aims to reduce transaction costs and improve security. 

Ethereum Classic Price History

ETC initially traded for around $0.93 upon its release, but the asset quickly shot up to around $2.70 as it gained traction in the wake of The DAO hack and interest in Ethereum Classic’s immutability. The asset started to take off in late 2017, hitting $21.53 in June. Despite a few hiccups, ETC managed to rise to around $41.12 by January 2018. 

As the bull market cooled off, ETC struggled, falling almost continuously throughout 2019 and 2020, ending the year at $5.80. A substantial bull run took hold of the market in 2021, causing ETC to go parabolic, rising 2,204% in five months and hitting $133.68 in May. 

When the demand generated by the bull run subsided, ETC crashed, falling to around $20 by February 2022 and $14.80 by April. Despite Ethereum Classic gaining adoption, ETC was unable to gather steam for an upward move, stagnating at around $18 until the start of 2024. 

As the market surged and demand for PoW assets increased, ETC rose to a 2024 high of $37.22 in March, although the asset now trades at $22.99 .