Ethereum
KLEAR3 ResearchPublished 2026-08-25Updated
ETHEthereum, the network that runs programs rather than only payments, has published code since December 2013 and started in July 2015. It has 8 listed implementations rather than one official client, and no supply cap at all.
What does Ethereum actually do?
Ethereum keeps a shared ledger like Bitcoin does, and adds one thing: the ledger can hold programs. A program deployed there runs the same way for everyone, cannot be quietly edited, and keeps running whether or not the people who wrote it are still around.
That single addition is why most of this top ten sits on top of it. A dollar token, a lending market, an exchange: each is a program someone deployed, not a company someone registered. Tether and USDC both live here, and together they hold more value on Ethereum than most national payment systems move.
The price of that flexibility is that a bug in a program is a bug with money in it. Nobody can pause a deployed contract by calling support. What protects users is whether the code was written well and read by enough people, which is exactly what this site tries to measure.
Since 2022 Ethereum no longer secures itself with electricity. Validators lock up deposits and lose part of them if they misbehave. Bitcoin still buys the same guarantee with power, and the difference is not one of quality but of what is put at risk.
Source CoinGecko https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/coins/ethereum, read 2026-08-25
Is the code actually open?
Yes, under LGPL-3.0, with 232 published versions. The subtler point is that there is no single official codebase. The aggregator lists eight implementations, and calling any one of them the code of Ethereum misdescribes what the project is: the specification is the reference, and the clients follow it.
What Ethereum actually publishes is a specification. Several teams then write software that follows it, in different languages, and the network runs on all of them at once. That is deliberate: a bug in one client does not stop the chain, because the others disagree with it and keep going.
So a directory that links one repository and labels it official is not just imprecise, it hides the design. This page points at go-ethereum because it is the best known, and says plainly that it is one of several.
No audit firm is listed on that repository either. As with BNB, whose client is a fork of this one, review also happens through public proposals rather than commissioned reports, and our rating scores that as zero because it counts reports.
Source CoinGecko https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/coins/ethereum, read 2026-08-25
The licence is worth a second of attention. LGPL-3.0 is free to use but not free of obligations: modify the client itself and your changes must be published too. That is a stricter bargain than the MIT licence Bitcoin uses, and it decides what a company can build on top without opening its own code.
Source GitHub https://api.github.com/repos/ethereum/go-ethereum, read 2026-08-25
Is anyone still working on it?
Yes, though the number surprises people. The best known client took 255 commits from 27 distinct Git identities over the 90 days to 25 August 2026. That is a quarter of what Bitcoin took, and it says nothing about either project being healthier.
The comparison only works if you remember what was counted. Ethereum spreads its work across eight or more repositories, plus the specification itself. Counting one client measures a slice, not the project.
That is a general warning about activity figures, here and everywhere. A single repository count is only as meaningful as the question it answers, and the question here is narrow: is this particular client still maintained. The answer is yes, with a commit on the day we read it.
The window slides on its own, so the two dates travel with the figure. Twenty seven Git identities is a floor on the number of humans, not a headcount.
Source GitHub https://api.github.com/repos/ethereum/go-ethereum/commits?since=2026-05-27T00:00:00Z&per_page=1, read 2026-08-25
- The repository goes public
- The network starts
Where does it actually run?
On its own network, which we checked answers: a public node returned block 25 834 302 on 25 August 2026. Ethereum also runs underneath a large part of this top ten, since several entries are contracts deployed on it rather than chains of their own.
That layering is the thing beginners find hardest, and it matters for real money. USDC exists on thirty four chains as thirty four separate contracts, of which Ethereum holds the largest share. Tether exists on eleven, and Ethereum holds under half of it.
So the same name can mean different things depending on the network you are on, and the two are not interchangeable when you send them.
Source ethereum-rpc.publicnode.com https://ethereum-rpc.publicnode.com — eth_blockNumber, read 2026-08-25
Network verified by reading its current block height on a public node.
What the token actually does
It pays for computation. Every operation a program performs costs gas, paid in ether, and the network refuses anything that runs out. Since 2021 part of that payment is destroyed rather than paid to anyone, which makes supply move in both directions.
The split is worth knowing because it decides who benefits when the network is busy. The base fee is burned, taken out of existence; the priority fee goes to the validator who includes the transaction. Congestion therefore destroys ether rather than enriching anyone.
There is no cap. New ether is issued to validators, existing ether is burned by usage, and the balance between the two decides whether supply grows or shrinks in a given month. That is a different arrangement from a fixed schedule that only ever adds, and it means the supply is a consequence, not a promise.
We did not measure the issuance rate ourselves and do not publish one. The circulating figure below comes from an aggregator.
- What the token is forDirectly verified
- How many existThird-party supported
- How new ones appearNot verified
- Who can change the rulesDirectly verified
KLEAR3 rating
- Open code5
public repository · LGPL-3.0 licence · 232 published releases · 255 commits in 90 days
- Audits5
4 firms on the core · overlapping reviews · 4 audited scopes · report opened: 0 critical, 0 high, 1 medium · no critical or high finding · code reviewed in the open: 255 commits in 90 days, 12 years in production
What holds it back audit stops at 2025-01-31: the code has moved since
- Business model5
business model published by the protocol · paid by celui qui envoie la transaction · collected by le validateur qui produit le bloc · la part de base est détruite, le pourboire va au validateur
- Governance5
decided by eip-process, with no vote · 950 improvement proposals published · process open for 10 years
- Token alignment1
supply measured, with no cap: nothing bounds issuance · circulating share known
What holds it back emission schedule unknown
- Maturity5
12 years of public code · 1 network verified by us
We rate the protocol: how it is built, how much of it can be checked, how its token lines up. Never an investment. A high score is not advice to buy, and a low one is not advice to sell.
What we could not establish
The issuance rate, the burn rate, and any audit finding. We read one client repository, not the specification process behind it, and we did not measure how much ether is created or destroyed per day. Those two rates decide the supply, and neither is on this page.
The circulating supply of 120,681,302 comes from an aggregator and was not read on chain by us. Because supply here can fall as well as rise, a figure from one day is a weaker statement than it looks.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an official Ethereum client?
No, and that is the design rather than an oversight. The project publishes a specification; several independent teams write software that follows it, and the network runs on all of them at the same time.
The aggregator lists eight repositories. Naming one of them the official code hides the reason there are several: if a flaw stops one client, the others disagree with it and the chain keeps producing blocks.
For a reader, the practical consequence is that a commit count on one repository measures one team, not the project. Activity figures need their scope stated, which is why this page names the repository it counted and the window it counted over. A number without those two is a number about nothing in particular, and with eight implementations the difference is the whole point.
Why does Ethereum have no maximum supply?
Because nothing in the protocol sets one. Ether is issued to validators and destroyed by usage, so the total moves in both directions and settles wherever those two flows meet.
Since 2021 the base fee of every transaction is burned instead of paid out. When the network is busy, more ether disappears than is created, and the total falls. When it is quiet, the opposite happens.
That is a genuinely different arrangement from a schedule fixed in advance. One promises a number; the other produces one. Neither is safer, and only one of them can be checked years ahead. The other has to be watched, which is a heavier obligation for anyone holding it, and a more honest description of what the protocol actually promises, which is a rule and not a number.
Is a program deployed on Ethereum safe?
The network running it correctly says nothing about the program itself. A contract does exactly what its code says, including the parts nobody intended, and no support line can pause it once it is live.
This is the distinction that costs beginners the most money. Ethereum working as designed and a contract on it being sound are two entirely separate questions, and only the first is settled by the chain producing blocks.
What protects a user is whether that particular contract was written well, published, and read by enough people. That is why every profile on this site reports code, licence and audits separately from whether the network answers. Conflating the two is the most common mistake made about this chain, and it costs real money every year, in contracts nobody reread.
Read next: our Solana profile shows a network that made the opposite trade on speed, and our TRON profile shows a chain whose size comes from the dollar tokens it carries rather than from its own.
Ask an assistant to summarise it and check what it claims.