Ether is the fuel of Ethereum. How gas and fees work, and why ether has also become an important investment.
Everything that happens on Ethereum requires computing power, from sending a token to running a smart contract. The amount of work is measured in gas, and gas is paid for in ether.
The more complex the operation, the more gas it needs. The price of gas rises when many people want to use the network at the same time.
Gas prevents the network from being overloaded by endless or malicious programs, since everything must be paid for. At the same time, validators are paid for securing the network.
Since 2021, part of every fee is burned, meaning removed for good. That limits how much new ether enters circulation.
Ether has also become an investment. It is used as collateral in decentralized finance, and in 2024 the US got exchange-traded ether funds.
In the Nordics, investors can get exposure to ether through exchange-traded products, just as with bitcoin.