Ethereum Classic (ETC) against Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum Classic and Ethereum next to each other: how the prices travelled, what differs under the hood and what each coin is built for.
ETC and ETH: what is under the hood
| Ethereum Classic (ETC) | Ethereum (ETH) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $7.43 | $2,467.42 |
| Ticker | ETC | ETH |
| Type | coin of its own network | coin of its own network |
| Launched | 2015 | 2015 |
| Consensus | Proof of Work (Etchash) | Proof of Stake |
| Privacy | transfers are public | transfers are public |
| In circulation | 158.2 M ETC | 122.06 M ETH |
| Market cap | $1.18 B | $301.08 B |
| Rank by cap | #69 | #2 |
| Built by | — | Vitalik Buterin |
| Block | — | ~12 sec |
| Supply cap | — | no cap |
Source: CoinGecko, Sep 17, 2026 18:54. Where these numbers come from
Who went where: ETC and ETH
Both prices start the period at 100, so the chart shows which one rose or fell harder — not the prices themselves.
| Period | ETC | ETH |
|---|---|---|
| Week | −7.89% | −0.37% |
| Month | +19.3% | +28.56% |
| Quarter | +2.4% | +43.76% |
Over the quarter their daily moves line up at 0.73 (they travel together).
What each one is built for: ETC and ETH
- Smart contracts and appsEthereum Classic and Ethereum
How Ethereum Classic and Ethereum are built
How Ethereum Classic works
ETC remains on Proof of Work (Etchash) and follows a fixed monetary policy: the block reward is reduced by 20% every 5 million blocks, which limits the total supply. It runs the same kind of smart contracts as Ethereum.
What Ethereum Classic is for
ETC is used for payments, for smart contracts and by miners who prefer a Proof of Work chain.
How Ethereum works
Since September 2022 Ethereum has used Proof of Stake: validators lock ETH to propose and confirm blocks, with a new slot every 12 seconds. Smart contracts run in the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). Part of every transaction fee is burned, so the net supply depends on network activity.
What Ethereum is for
ETH is used to pay gas fees, as collateral in DeFi, for staking and as a settlement asset across the ecosystem. Layer-2 networks such as Arbitrum and Optimism also use ETH for fees, which makes it the working currency of a large part of the crypto economy.