ETH: Everything You Need to Know About Ethereum is Native Token
A comprehensive guide to Ether (ETH) — its use cases, tokenomics, staking, and role in the DeFi ecosystem.
What Is ETH?
Ether (ETH) is the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain. It is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and serves as the backbone of the world's largest smart contract ecosystem.
Use Cases
- Gas fees: Required to pay for all Ethereum transactions
- Staking: Lock ETH to secure the network and earn ~4-5% APY
- DeFi collateral: The most widely used collateral asset in DeFi
- Store of value: Increasingly viewed as "ultrasound money" due to fee burning
Tokenomics
Since EIP-1559 (August 2021) and The Merge (September 2022), ETH has become deflationary during periods of high network activity. Base fees are burned, reducing supply, while new issuance to validators is minimal.
Liquid Staking
Liquid staking derivatives like stETH (Lido), rETH (Rocket Pool), and cbETH (Coinbase) allow users to stake ETH while maintaining liquidity for use in DeFi.
Trading ETH with Alkizen
Swap ETH across 75+ chains, DCA into ETH positions, or set limit orders — all through Alkizen's unified interface.