What if you invested in Ethereum in 2020?
ETH-USD · Crypto · Data through 2026-06-01
If you invested $1,000 in Ethereum in 2020
The same $1,000 in the S&P 500 would be worth $2,574(+157.4%)
The S&P 500 returned $2,574 on the same $1,000. Ethereum beat the market by $8,335.
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What if Ethereum keeps this up?
Project forward at Ethereum's 44.4% historical growth rate. See 5-30 year scenarios.
Growth of $1,000
Ethereum vs. S&P 500 vs. US Dollar, 2020 to present
Year-by-Year Returns
$1,000 invested in Ethereum starting January 2020
| Year | Price | Value | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $180.16 | $1,000 | - |
| 2021 | $1,314.99 | $7,299 | +629.9% |
| 2022 | $2,688.28 | $14,922 | +104.4% |
| 2023 | $1,586.54 | $8,806 | -41% |
| 2024 | $2,282.54 | $12,670 | +43.9% |
| 2025 | $3,298.27 | $18,307 | +44.5% |
| 2026 | $2,445.09 | $13,572 | -25.9% |
What this return means
$1,000 in Ethereum (ETH-USD) in 2020 grew to $10,909. That works out to +990.9%, about 11x the original stake, as of 2026-06-01.
That is a compound rate of about 44.4% a year, an extreme pace that few holdings sustain for 6.5 years. The same $1,000 in an S&P 500 index fund over the same span would be about $2,574, so Ethereum beat the index by roughly $8,335. The index compounded at about 15.7% a year over that period.
The year-by-year record shows how bumpy the ride was. The best single year was 2021 at +629.9%, and the worst was 2023 at -41.0%. At its lowest point the position was down about 41% from an earlier high. Ethereum price history used here starts in 2017; trading on other exchanges before that is not included. These figures use split-adjusted closing prices and exclude dividends, taxes, trading fees, and inflation, so a real after-tax result would differ.
None of this is a recommendation. It is a record of what already happened, and past performance does not guarantee future results.
Ethereum at different times
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* Ethereum price data from Yahoo Finance begins in 2017. Earlier trading history from other exchanges is not included. For informational and educational purposes only. Not financial advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results. All calculations are based on split-adjusted closing prices from Yahoo Finance and do not account for dividends, taxes, or trading fees. See our methodology and full disclaimer.