ETC

Ethereum Classic

Layer 1

The original proof-of-work Ethereum chain: fixed supply cap, little on-chain use, and a community split over its future.

Legacy chain, fading v1.1 · as of 2026-10-21 · framework v1.13 Coinsight · all analyses
Bottom line

Ethereum Classic is the 2016 continuation of the original Ethereum chain, still secured by GPU and ASIC miners and capped at 210.7M ETC. Paid usage is tiny: DefiLlama shows about $28 of fees a day against roughly $30M a year of new coins paid to miners. The token is −48% over a year, worse than BTC (−22%) and ETH (−35%), and −95% from its 2021 high. The planned Olympia upgrade, which would send fees to an on-chain treasury, has divided developers, and a disputed client release in September showed how thin the governance is.

Scorecard (1–5)
Project
Token performance
Tokenomics
Price
$8.15
+4.0% 24h · −8% 30d · CoinGecko 21 Oct
Market cap
$1.29B
rank #71 · FDV $1.29B
24h volume
$41.0M
3.2% of market cap
From ATH
−95%
ATH $167.09, May 2021
2026 YTD
−29%
$11.46 → $8.15
Hashrate
~155 TH/s
Kryptex, 25 Jul 2026; sources range 140–199

The last 12 months

$5$10$15$20Oct 25NovDecJan 26FebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec2025-11-08: $18.0221$18.02 peak2026-02-06: $8.0588$8.062026-08-19: $6.0795$6.08 low2026-10-21: $8.1533$8.151One-day spike to $18.022February sell-off3Emergency bootnode patch4Community split on Olympia5Olympia DAO live on testnet6Fifthening: 1.6384 ETC/block7Year low at $6.088Disputed core-geth v1.13.09Olympia hard fork target
MarketTechGovernanceProductTokenomicsUpcoming

Daily closes from CoinGecko, 22 Oct 2025 to 21 Oct 2026.

Key events
  1. 1
    08 Nov 25 One-day spike to $18.02. Close jumps from $14.54 to $18.02, then fades to $15.05 within a week; no clear catalyst found.
  2. 2
    06 Feb 26 February sell-off. From $12.87 (29 Jan) to $8.06 (6 Feb), −37% in eight days with the wider market.
  3. 3
    Mar 26 Emergency bootnode patch. Core-Geth v1.12.21 ships after an attacker exploited a bug against ETC bootnodes.
  4. 4
    03 Apr 26 Community split on Olympia. Community call notes record open opposition to the treasury plan and under a year of ETC Cooperative runway.
  5. 5
    Apr 26 Olympia DAO live on testnet. Treasury governance layer goes live on the Mordor testnet, per a secondary report.
  6. 6
    22 Jul 26 Fifthening: 1.6384 ETC/block. Block reward cut 20% at block 25,000,001, scheduled for ~22–23 Jul.
  7. 7
    19 Aug 26 Year low at $6.08. Slide since June bottoms at $6.08, then rebounds to $9.59 by 28 Sep.
  8. 8
    14 Sep 26 Disputed core-geth v1.13.0. Unreviewed release from a community fork; pools reverted to v1.12.23 within a day, no disruption.
  9. 9
    Q4 26 Olympia hard fork target. EIP-1559 with base fee to a treasury; targeted for end of 2026, no mainnet block set.

How a transaction is confirmed on Ethereum Classic

User
Signs a transaction

Wallet sends ETC or calls a contract, paying gas in ETC.

Node
Relays to the mempool

Core-Geth or another client checks it and gossips it to peers.

Miner / pool
Builds a block

Pool picks transactions, mostly by fee, into a candidate block.

Hashpower
Solves Etchash

GPUs and ASICs race to find the proof of work, a block every ~13–14 s.

EVM
Executes and settles

Every node re-runs the block; the heaviest chain wins.

Receiver
Waits for confirmations

Exchanges wait for many blocks because of past 51% attacks.

Where ETC comes in: users pay gas in ETC, and the winning miner gets the fees plus 1.6384 newly minted ETC per block. Nothing is burned or staked. Olympia would add a base fee that goes to a DAO treasury instead of the miner.

Usage and adoption

USD per year at $8.15, estimated
Transaction fees
~$0.01M
New ETC to miners (now)
~$30M
Before Jul 2026 cut
~$38M

Fees: DefiLlama chain snapshots of ~$28–29 a day, annualised. Issuance: 1.6384 ETC per block at ~14 s blocks (~6,200 a day) is ~3.7M ETC a year; the pre-cut rate of 2.048 ETC gives ~4.6M. Users pay well under 0.1% of what miners receive; the rest is new supply. Block time and fee figures are estimates.

  • weak signal
    Chain fees
    ~$28 / day

    DefiLlama snapshot, 2026. All paid to miners; nothing is burned.

  • medium signal
    Grayscale ETCG
    ~$91M

    Net assets, 13 Aug 2026 (fund data page). OTC trust, not an ETF; down from ~$126M in Jan.

  • weak signal
    DeFi TVL
    ~$0.1M

    DefiLlama snapshots of $106k–121k. Effectively no DeFi.

  • medium signal
    Hashrate
    ~155 TH/s

    Kryptex, Jul 2026; ~199 TH/s cited for early 2026. Security budget, falling with each reward cut.

  • weak signal
    Transactions
    ~8–9.5k / day

    DefiLlama snapshots; every on-chain transaction counted, including transfers and mining payouts.

Ethereum Classic is paid for almost entirely by new supply: fees are a rounding error next to miner issuance. The value case rests on ETC as a scarce proof-of-work asset, not on usage, so watch hashrate and holder demand rather than activity counts.

Project

What it is
The original Ethereum chain that kept running after the 2016 DAO-hack rollback. A proof-of-work smart-contract chain (Etchash mining), EVM compatible, with a fixed 210.7M ETC cap.
Team
No company or foundation leads it. Client work is done by small volunteer and grant-funded groups; the ETC Cooperative, the main funder, had less than one year of runway in April 2026.
Differentiation
Proof of work and a 'code is law' ethos are the pitch: a home for miners and users who reject proof of stake. Technically it follows Ethereum's EVM with a lag.
Traction
Very low: DefiLlama snapshots show ~8–9.5k transactions and ~$28 of fees a day and only ~$0.1M in DeFi. Grayscale's ETCG trust held ~$91M in Aug 2026.
Competitors
Ethereum and its L2s for apps; Kaspa, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash and other proof-of-work coins for miners and 'digital gold' buyers.
Key risks
Governance conflict (Olympia treasury, a disputed client release in Sep 2026), thin developer funding, low fee revenue to pay for security as rewards fall, and a history of 51% attacks.
Roadmap
Olympia hard fork (ECIP-1111 to 1114): EIP-1559 fees with the base fee sent to an on-chain treasury run by a DAO. Testnet governance live since Apr 2026; mainnet targeted for end of 2026 but not scheduled and still contested.

Token performance

1-year return (22 Oct 2025 → 21 Oct 2026, CoinGecko)
ETC
-48%
BTC
-22%
ETH
-35%

ETC fell further than BTC and ETH over 12 months. Over 3 years it is down about −50% (from ~$16 in Oct 2023; monthly sources give $15.5 to $17.5), against BTC ~+179% (from ~$29.7k) and ETH ~+53% (from ~$1.6k). The 3-year figure is researched by hand because the free CoinGecko API covers 365 days.

Range 2026
$6.08 low (19 Aug) to $14.37 high (11 Jan), daily closes; now $8.15
12-month drawdown
−66%, from $18.02 (8 Nov 2025) to $6.08 (19 Aug 2026)
Liquidity
$41M traded in 24h, 3.2% of market cap; rank #71
Relative strength
−48% in a year vs BTC −22% and ETH −35%; YTD −29%; +34% off the August low
ATH check ATH check passed. The $167.09 high (6 May 2021) came almost five years after ETC began trading in 2016, so it is not a launch spike. Price is −95% from it.

Tokenomics

Supply
~158.8M ETC circulating of a 210.7M hard cap (75%). No premine beyond the original Ethereum genesis allocation.
Inflation/emissions
Block reward drops 20% every 5M blocks. The fifth cut, 2.048 → 1.6384 ETC, was scheduled for block 25,000,001 around 22–23 Jul 2026. Now ~3.7M ETC a year, ~2.3%.
Unlocks/vesting
None. All new supply comes from mining rewards and is paid to miners, who usually sell part of it to cover costs.
Utility
Gas for transactions and contracts on Ethereum Classic. No staking; ETC does not secure the chain directly, hashpower does.
Concentration
No team or treasury holdings of note. Grayscale's ETCG trust (~$91M, Aug 2026) is the largest known holder; mining is concentrated in a few large pools.
Sinks
None today: fees go to miners and nothing is burned. Olympia would not burn either; it would route base fees to a treasury.

Bull case

Olympia ships at the end of 2026 with broad support, giving ETC a funded treasury and developers, and proof-of-work buyers rotate into ETC after the supply cut. Price reclaims the $9.59 September high and then the $14.37 January high.

Bear case

The Olympia dispute hardens into a client or chain split, funding runs out, and falling miner rewards weaken security. Price loses the $6.08 August low and drifts with the long tail of legacy coins.

Watch before the next re-run

  • Olympia: final ECIP status, client releases and a mainnet block number
  • Client governance after the disputed core-geth v1.13.0
  • Hashrate after the July reward cut (~155 TH/s)
  • $6.08 August low and the $9.59 September high

Where to trade

Krakenlisted

ETC against EUR · USD · BTC · ETH

24h $118.6k · ±2% depth $194.9k

OKXlisted

ETC against EUR · USDT · USDC

24h $1.19M · ±2% depth $237.8k

Largest exchanges

Exchange24h vol±2% depth
HTXETC/USDT$4.22M$132.8k
BinanceETC/USDT$2.74M$405.3k
OKXETC/USDT$1.18M$237.8k
UpbitETC/KRW$763.5k$199.1k
BybitETC/USDT$594.5k$43.2k

Deepest DEX pools

No on-chain pool with real trading found.

On-chain share of all ETC volume: 0.0%.

As of 21 Oct 2026 · CoinGecko tickers (24h volume, ±2% depth). ±2% depth is the money it takes to move the price 2% either way: the real size of a market. Exchanges ranked by volume among well-known venues; pools by depth. Not investment advice.

Where to follow

Official
People on X
Code and governance
Data