By now, you should almost certainly know about Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
But if you needed a quick recap, here it is.
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Q2 performance recap
In terms of trading price, Ethereum had a solid second quarter.
Over the final month of Q2,Ethereum continued to grow.
As it happened,Ethereum reached its quarterly high trading price ($335) in June.
Over the course of the quarter, Ethereums trading price rose 114 percent.
Not too shabby if youre holding on to ETH tokens for the long run.
From the first day of the quarter Ethereums price has proceeded on a steady downward trajectory.
Ethereumopened Q3 trading at around $285.
The coin held steady around this price during the first week of the quarter.
It even saw a 7.7 percent increase on July 8 as itsprice rose to $307 per token.
Unfortunately, that would be as good as it got for Ethereum at the start of Q3.
By July 16, Ethereum hit $202, the lowest trading price for the whole month.
This is a painful 34-percent drop over the high it saw in the first week of the month.
The cryptocurrency showed no signs of rallying to better things as it progressed into the middle of Q3.
Over the entire month of August, ETH continued to drop in value.
However, the decentralized token went into free fall for the rest of month.
Ethereum opened September trading at a hair over $168.
Ultimately, it seems that keeping organizations from joining the connection, isnt good for adoption.
Thats incredibly shaky news for a platform that positions itself as decentralized.
If that wasnt bad enough, in early September Ethereumovertook Bitcoin in terms of daily fees.
Perhaps a sign that Ethereum is struggling to deal with the volume of users.
It also said it has plans to add a further 115 in the future.
The future ofButerins platform hangs in the balance, though.
News that itsblockchain is struggling to deal with demands on its resources means the future looks uncertain at best.
According to aCoinDesk report published in Q3, Ethereum is facing challenges on all fronts.
It doesnt just have to address its scalability woes, it also has to consider its future as money.
However, investors dont seem to be immediately worried about Ethereums short term future.
It seems Buterin and co have doing enough to keep traders interested, for now.
With every passing week, we get closer to the planned launch of ETH 2.0.
How that affects the long term functionality of the platform though, remains to be seen.
Story byMatthew Beedham
Matthew is the editor of SHIFT.
He likes electric cars, and other things with wheels, wings, or hulls.
