Crypto prices · Figures on this page update automatically.
The figure above is the dollar price of one ether, the native token of the Ethereum network. Where Bitcoin was designed as fixed-supply digital money and a store of value, Ethereum was built as a programmable platform: ether is the fuel that pays for running contracts, applications and token transfers on it. The two often move together with overall crypto sentiment, but the reason people hold them differs, and so does the way their supply works.
What is the difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum?
Bitcoin is a payment and store-of-value network with a hard cap on supply and deliberately limited scripting. Ethereum runs general-purpose smart contracts, which has made it a base layer for much of the stablecoin, DeFi and token market, with ether paying for that computation.
What are gas fees?
Gas is the charge for the computation and storage a transaction consumes on Ethereum, paid in ether. Busy periods push fees higher because users are bidding for limited block space.
Is there a limit on how much ether can exist?
There is no fixed cap like Bitcoin's. New ether is issued to those who stake and secure the network, while a portion of transaction fees is destroyed, so the total supply can grow or shrink depending on network activity.