From Coinpedia · By PR Manager
Ethereum’s 2017 climb remains among the most striking stories crypto has produced. A young smart contract chain grew into one of the largest digital assets on earth and paid early buyers returns few markets ever repeat.
Those who understood what Ethereum could become before it went mainstream put in small sums that turned into life changing holdings as the network became the base layer for DeFi and countless apps. CoinMarketCap lists the 2014 ICO price at $0.311, and ETH trades at $2,409 on CoinMarketCap as of October 20, 2026, down 0.68% in 24 hours, with a market cap of $294 billion.
Some investors now spot a similar chance forming in Pepeto, a fast growing meme coin on Ethereum that is pulling serious interest during its presale. Its early stage, its widening holder base, and the live tools it has already shipped match the profile of projects that exploded in earlier cycles, which is why many now call it the best new crypto of 2026.
Ethereum Price History: The 2017 Run Still Shows What Early Looks Like
That breakout came from more than market mood. Smart contracts let developers build apps right on the chain, and as usage spread, demand for ETH outran supply and produced one of crypto’s largest wealth events.
Big holders still want it today: BitMine bought another 12,535 ETH last week and now holds about 4.9% of all supply, CoinMarketCap reported on October 19.
Yet many investors missed that early window and now hunt for projects with a strong story and a tiny valuation.
The aim is less to find a second ETH than to catch a project whose ecosystem can grow well before most of the market notices, because at a $294 billion market cap ETH itself cannot repeat a 2017 style multiple. That hunt keeps turning toward newer projects in the fastest moving corners of the market.
Pepeto (PEPETO): The Best New Crypto With Real Buying Pressure
Pepeto now ranks among the most talked about meme presales of 2026, with over 43,000 holders already in across several stages. Joining meme coin appeal to live trading infrastructure has built a story that goes past the usual meme gamble and keeps pulling investors toward the project.
Where most earlier meme coins ran on community buzz alone, Pepeto rests on three working products: PepetoSwap, an exchange with no swap fee that has already handled $50 million a day in testing, a bridge that locks tokens on one chain and mints them on another in about 41 seconds without a transfer fee.
And a risk scorer that simulates a buy and a sell on every contract and blocks trades on anything with critical findings. Those tools place the project in the wider race where investors now weigh utility as much as holder growth.
Across the presale, the supply has stayed fixed at 420 trillion, held constant across chains by the bridge, while demand keeps bringing fresh buyers as each stage closes on a set date and the price rises after it.