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

For Ethereum2024 was the year where both a lot happened and not too much, it seemed.

There was substantial innovation, but those who just wanted to make money investing in Ethereum’s native currency ETH they’re a little disappointed—if the vibes start CryptoTwitter (aka X) are anything.

Upgrades like Dencun have made it cheaper to get things done on the network, and President-elect Donald Trump has even thrown his weight behind a project built on Ethereum. But there has also been a regulatory crackdown, leading many to believe that the SEC has come down hard on the ecosystem.

surprising approval spot ETH exchange traded funds it changed things but didn’t cause the asset price to explode like it did with this one Bitcoin counterpart.

Even so, it’s been another interesting — and noteworthy — year for the blockchain behind crypto’s second-largest coin. Here’s a look back at how it all went down.

Crackdown on regulations

In April, rumors it started spinning that the SEC could come after Ethereum in its entirety after the Ethereum Foundation announced it was being investigated by a state authority.

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

It started when the SEC hit the firm with a Wells notice, a warning of an impending securities violation lawsuit, regarding its popular Ethereum wallet, MetaMask. Consensys rushed with a preventive suit against SEC.

The company alleged that the agency had secretly considered ETH to be a security for over a year, arguing that the regulator’s actions “would punish Consensys for accepting and acting on the government’s assurance for years that ETH is not a security” .

Then SEC sued Consensys for allegedly engaging in the unregistered offering and sale of securities through its MetaMask Swaps and Staking services.

The Consensys process was thrown out by a judge in September. trump card winner it was both good and bad for the firm: SEC will they have a new pro-crypto president if Trump’s pick, Paul Atkins, is confirmedbut not before Consensys had to cut its staff by 20% in October. The firm cited aggressive regulations and lawsuits as part of the reason.

ETFs have an impact

After the expected approval and huge trading months of identify Bitcoin ETFsindustry observers didn’t think Ethereum would get the same green light — at least not right away — because the regulator wasn’t clear whether the asset was a security or a commodity.

But in a surprise move, the SEC gave the thumbs up. And two months after initial approvals, spot ETFs trade began in July. But desperation seemed to set in when the price of ETH failed to rise.

The approval of Bitcoin ETFs pushed the price of Bitcoin to a new all-time high after the all-time high. ETH has not been so lucky: at the time of writing, it still has a considerable gap to close before it breaks the 2021 record high of $4,878.

Even though the price of Ethereum didn’t take off like a rocket, the approval of ETFs provided an important win: the SEC stopped calling ETH a security.

Despite the previous saying in 2018 that the asset was not SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, in charge of security, has for years refused to answer about the currency’s whereabouts — and has hit crypto company after crypto company with lawsuits for allegedly selling unregistered securities.

But the approval of ETFs showed that the watchdog essentially agreed that the asset was decentralized enough not to be a security. This came with Wall Street’s recognition of ETH and its blockchain as an asset class – even though traditional finance has he had a hard time understanding Ethereum’s value proposition.

It helped that really big names like BlackRock boss Larry Fink generated some momentum. The CEO of BlackRock started the year with saying that he saw “value” in an Ethereum ETF and that it was a stepping stone to “tokenization.”

In March, the asset manager launch “BUIDL” – a tokenized fund running on Ethereum – and then joined the fray with its own spot ETF.

Even Trump relies on ETH

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

As part of his digital asset-centric agenda, he helped launch a project that runs on… you guessed it, Ethereum.

First tease in August by his son Eric, World Liberty Financial is a decentralized financial project. Decentralized finance – or DeFi – is the crypto sphere that wants to make taking out a loan or loan automatic and easy through blockchain-based protocols.

Most DeFi projects are built on Ethereum, so it’s not a big surprise that the Trump team went with the project, but still – it was big news for the community. WLF will offer crypto lending and lending services, the team behind the project said in an exclusive interview with Its decryption sister company, Rug Radio.

The project launched and had some success slow token release—open only to accredited investors—but it’s still early days. Sources say decrypts that Team Trump also has plans to launch a native stablecoin, though it is indeed a crowded market.

Layer 2 takes over

Technically, Ethereum has gotten even cheaper – a lot cheaper. Of the network Upgrade Dencun has reduced transaction costs on its layer 2 networks. Such networks enable faster and cheaper transactions than on the main network, and Dencun’s addition of “proto-danksharding” technology has further reduced costs for users.

That’s the good news. On the other hand, the increasing use of L2s has taken value out of Ethereum’s layer 1, which some in the crypto space believe is responsible for the underperformance of Ethereum prices this year.

In fact, VanEck’s head of digital asset research, Matthew Sigel said in October that unless Ethereum receives a “model shift”, he projects that the price of ETH will only reach $7,300 by 2030 – as opposed to $22,000 in previous predictions.

Tier 2 networks are “taking more value out of Ethereum” than previously expected, he posited. Fortunately, 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 that L2s don’t become too extractive.

Edited by Stacy Elliott and Andrew Hayward