Ethereum has officially reached a major milestone—ten years of uninterrupted network uptime. While this achievement is unprecedented in the blockchain world, it comes with mixed reactions from the broader crypto community. As the Ethereum Foundation highlights this moment as a symbol of resilience and progress, ongoing concerns around decentralization, transaction costs, and Layer-2 (L2) architecture continue to spark debate online. Meanwhile, on-chain metrics tell another story—ETH derivatives markets are surging to new all-time highs, suggesting traders are still bullish on the asset.
Ethereum’s Unbreakable Streak
In an era where even the biggest tech platforms like Facebook and Amazon Web Services have faced major outages, Ethereum’s consistent uptime since its launch in 2015 is a remarkable feat. Over the past decade, the Ethereum network has weathered forks, price crashes, regulatory scrutiny, and high-profile hacks—but never experienced a full network shutdown.
A post by an Ethereum Foundation contributor known as Binji recently went viral for pointing out this longevity. He emphasized that Ethereum’s resilience isn’t the result of a central figure or corporate oversight, but rather a globally distributed community of developers, validators, and users who have collectively kept the chain running.
“Ethereum never stops,” he wrote. “Not through forks, crashes, bubbles, lawsuits, hacks, wars… and it’s not thanks to a CEO or a hotline—it’s because we all did.”
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin reposted the message on his X (formerly Twitter) profile, amplifying the sentiment. Other community members followed with their own messages of support, with many expressing long-term confidence in the platform.
One post read, “Still holding ETH to 10k this cycle is inevitable,” underscoring the bullish expectations that remain in parts of the community.
Doubts Still Linger
Despite the celebratory tone from supporters, Ethereum continues to face strong criticism—especially from those skeptical of its scalability claims and Layer-2 narrative. For these users, the network’s evolution hasn’t lived up to its original promise of becoming “the world’s computer.”
One critic noted on social media, “Ethereum not only went down, it was forked. Stop sugar-coating the facts. You were gaslit to believe L2s are decentralized.”
Another user chimed in on transaction costs: “The world can’t afford $1000s, $100s or even $10s per transaction. That’s not adoption.”
Many skeptics argue that Layer-2 solutions—designed to make Ethereum more scalable—still rely too heavily on centralized components and can’t deliver true decentralization. The debate highlights the ongoing tension between Ethereum’s technological advancements and the ideological values that first attracted many to blockchain in the first place.
ETH Derivatives Break Records
While online arguments continue, data from the derivatives market paints a more optimistic picture. According to CoinGlass, aggregated Open Interest for ETH derivatives has surged to an all-time high of $57.73 billion. This increase signals growing trader activity and confidence in ETH’s price direction.
Additional data from Coinalyze shows a sharp uptick in Open Interest towards the end of July, confirming short-term momentum. The Funding Rate—a key metric indicating the balance between long and short positions—also jumped to 0.0134, suggesting more traders are betting on ETH’s price going higher.
Despite regulatory uncertainties and community divisions, these metrics reflect strong participation from institutional and retail traders alike. For many investors, the market fundamentals appear sound enough to justify taking long positions in Ethereum—even amid its internal disputes.
A Divided but Thriving Ecosystem
Ethereum’s 10-year anniversary is not just a technical milestone; it’s a symbol of how far decentralized technology has come. Yet the event also acts as a mirror, reflecting both the strengths and weaknesses of the project. Supporters view the uninterrupted uptime and growing derivatives activity as proof that Ethereum remains the backbone of decentralized finance and Web3 innovation. Critics, however, see a bloated and expensive system drifting further from its decentralized ideals.
This division isn’t necessarily a bad thing—it highlights the passionate discourse that has always been a part of Ethereum’s identity. With major upgrades like proto-danksharding and further L2 integrations in the pipeline, Ethereum’s path forward remains complex and contested.
What’s clear, though, is that Ethereum’s impact on the internet and finance cannot be denied. A decade in, the project is still evolving, still dividing opinion—and still running.
Looking Ahead
As Ethereum enters its second decade, the challenges are just as significant as the opportunities. It must find ways to improve accessibility and scalability without compromising its decentralized ethos. Whether it can maintain its market dominance in the face of emerging competitors will depend on how it navigates this next phase.
But for now, one thing is certain: Ethereum never stopped—and it shows no signs of doing so anytime soon.
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