197.1 TH/s
Algorithm: Etchash · GPU + ASIC compatible
Network Hashrate
Institutional Infrastructure
Ethereum Classic's institutional footprint spans global exchange coverage, regulated investment products and institutional-grade custody: the rails that connect more than a decade of protocol development to the capital and regulatory frameworks of the global financial system.
Global Exchange Coverage
300+ active markets across 20+ major global exchanges, with 17 fiat currency pairs spanning every major currency region and continuous ETC/USD price discovery since 2016: the liquidity depth institutional portfolio allocation and stablecoin settlement require.
Institutional Custody
Fireblocks, Coinbase Custody, BitGo, Copper and Bakkt provide the qualified custodian infrastructure institutional allocators need, for hedge funds, family offices and regulated investment products. MPC security, insurance coverage and SOC 2 compliance mean ETC moves through existing institutional settlement rails without bespoke custody arrangements.
Regulated Products
Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust (ETCG), quoted on OTCQX since 2018 and available through Charles Schwab, Fidelity and Interactive Brokers: the oldest regulated securities vehicle for ETC exposure, positioned for ETF conversion on the trust-to-ETF path Grayscale took with Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Regulatory Status
Ethereum Classic DAO LLC is a Wyoming DAO LLC (Filing ID 2025-001671865). Ethereum Classic itself is a digital commodity candidate under the CLARITY Act, an asset with no issuer under MiCA and a listed crypto-asset on Japan's JVCEA Green List, and Classic USD makes it a GENIUS Act-aligned stablecoin platform.
Stablecoin Infrastructure
Classic USD ($USC), a GENIUS Act-aligned stablecoin issued by Brale Inc. (NMLS #2376957) and deployed on Ethereum Classic mainnet: live, regulated stablecoin infrastructure on a Proof-of-Work network.
Mining Infrastructure
Globally distributed GPU and ASIC mining infrastructure secures the only mature Proof-of-Work network with native smart contracts. When Ethereum moved to Proof-of-Stake in 2022, Ethereum Classic absorbed a significant share of its Ethash mining ecosystem, from hashrate and GPU farms to the ASIC manufacturers that serve it, such as Bitmain and Jasminer. The Mined in America Act, a bill introduced in the Senate in March 2026, would give domestic US operations a voluntary federal certification.
Leadership
Ethereum Classic has been carried since 2016 by a global network of contributors, many of them volunteers, who maintain the chain, coordinate upgrades and build the ecosystem. The ETC Cooperative, founded in 2017, funded core development and infrastructure for nearly a decade with no funding source in the protocol, sustained in large part by donations from Grayscale, whose Ethereum Classic Trust is held by a widely distributed base of investors. Ethereum Classic DAO continues that commitment today as the legal entity behind the network’s public goods in the ethereumclassic organization, built to grow with the network.
How this work is maintained and funded →
Cody Burns
Organizing Member
Founding Ethereum Classic contributor and technical lead on every major network upgrade since the chain's inception in 2016. Architect of the Thanos mining algorithm upgrade and principal developer across multiple ETC client implementations. A decade of protocol architecture and institutional engagement has placed Ethereum Classic at the intersection of digital commodity regulation and programmable finance.
GitHub →
Chris Mercer
Organizing Member
Core contributor since Ethereum Classic's first year, active across governance, client development and the application layer. Deployed Classic USD, a GENIUS Act-aligned stablecoin, on Ethereum Classic, and builds the composable DeFi infrastructure the network's institutional use depends on. Leads work on the application layer and on the on-chain governance architecture the Olympia proposal specifies.
GitHub →Foundational Organizations
The organizations whose funded development and regulated institutional access laid the foundation Ethereum Classic DAO builds on.
ETC Cooperative
Foundational Organization
The ETC Cooperative, a US 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 2017 by Ethereum Classic's earliest core contributors, contributed millions of dollars to Ethereum Classic's client teams and infrastructure. From January 2022 it funded and maintained Core-Geth through the Mystique and Spiral upgrades, along with the peer discovery lists, the bootnodes and the public JSON-RPC endpoints. It entered maintenance mode at the end of 2024, and the public goods it maintained continue in the ethereumclassic organization, where Ethereum Classic DAO maintains and funds them today as the funder of last resort.
etccooperative.org (archived)→Grayscale Investments
Regulated Investment Products
Grayscale pioneered regulated institutional access to Ethereum Classic in 2017, years before Bitcoin ETFs existed as a product category, and became a major institutional donor to the ETC Cooperative, indirectly funding core client development for the network underpinning its product. Few, if any, investment product issuers were doing this at the time. The Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust (ETCG) is quoted on OTCQX and available through Charles Schwab, Fidelity and Interactive Brokers.
grayscale.com→Our Values
Ethereum Classic was built on properties that predate this organization and will outlast it. They are not aspirations: they are the constraints within which every decision is made, and the standard every proposal is measured against.
Immutability
Ethereum Classic exists because, in 2016, its community refused to roll back the exploit of The DAO, and every block since has held that line. Finality is not a feature to be toggled: it is the property that makes ETC viable as neutral settlement infrastructure in every jurisdiction it serves. No counterparty can reverse a settled transaction by decree, selectively freeze activity or alter historical state. It is the original Ethereum chain, preserved without exception.
Decentralization
Independent client implementations and GPU and ASIC mining infrastructure distributed across continents leave ETC with no single point of control. The absence of a central issuer or controlling party is not merely an architectural choice: it is what positions ETC for digital commodity classification in the US, and what keeps MiCA's rules for asset-referenced and e-money tokens from applying to it. Decentralization is both a technical property and a legal one.
Transparency
Ethereum Classic's development history is more than a decade of public ECIPs, open repositories and on-chain activity anyone can verify: building in the open is how this network has always operated. Ethereum Classic DAO is committed to publishing periodic reports under Wyoming's DAO LLC framework. Under the Olympia proposal, every Treasury allocation and governance vote would also be recorded on-chain, publicly verifiable without permission or an access request.
Sustainability
As proposed, Olympia would credit the EIP-1559 base fee to a treasury that only on-chain governance could spend, while block rewards and priority-fee tips would stay with miners. Anyone could also add to it by choice, by sending ETC to its address or, for a miner, by naming it as a block's beneficiary. The deeper sustainability is organizational: core development would no longer depend on a single employer or grant cycle, and funding would be decided in public, by proposal and vote, on the same terms for every contributor.