Buy & Swap Ethereum Classic (ETC)

$28.40+2.41% (24h)ETC network

Ethereum Classic (ETC) can be swapped instantly on SwapRocket — no account, no KYC and zero added fees. Compare live ETC rates from every connected provider and receive funds in your own wallet in minutes.

Swap ETC instantly — no KYC

ETC / USD — 24H chart

Change2.15%High$29.37Low$27.46

Updating…

Live market data · extended history unavailable for this asset

24h2.41%

7d—

30d—

90d—

1y—

Ethereum Classic statistics

Market cap$4.2B

Fully diluted market cap—

24h volume$200M

Circulating supply148.00M ETC

Max supply∞

Total supply—

All-time high$176.00

Market dominance—

Rank—

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About Ethereum Classic (ETC)

Layer-1 blockchain

Ethereum Classic (ETC) is a Layer-1 blockchain — a base network with its own consensus, validators, and native coin (ETC) used to pay fees and secure the chain. Developers build applications directly on it, and ETC is the asset that powers the whole ecosystem.

How does Ethereum Classic work?

The Ethereum Classic network is maintained by a distributed set of participants who validate transactions and add them to the blockchain. ETC is required to pay for transactions and, on many networks, to stake and help secure the chain in exchange for rewards.

What is ETC used for?

ETC pays network fees, can often be staked for yield, and serves as the core unit of value across apps built on Ethereum Classic. Demand for ETC tends to track activity and adoption on the network itself.

How to buy or swap ETC on SwapRocket

Pick ETC as the asset you want to receive.
Choose which crypto you're paying with.
SwapRocket compares every connected exchange and surfaces the best rate.
Paste your wallet address and confirm — funds arrive in minutes.

Ethereum Classic (ETC) swap profile

This profile explains how Ethereum Classic swaps work on SwapRocket: the network ETC settles on, what an exchange costs, how long it usually takes, and which pairs are published. Rates are aggregated live from every connected provider and shown in full before you commit to anything.

ETC key facts

Ticker: ETC
Settlement network: ETC
Category: Layer-1 blockchain
Custody: Non-custodial — coins move from the provider straight to your wallet
Cost to you: Zero added fees; you see the provider rate
Verification: No KYC for crypto-to-crypto swaps
Typical completion: Most swaps finish in under 10 minutes
Rate options: Best rate, fastest route or fixed rate
Published pairs: 4 published ETC pairs

How a ETC swap works

Enter the amount you want to exchange, pick the asset on the other side, and SwapRocket queries every connected exchange partner at once. You choose an offer, paste the wallet address that should receive the funds, and send ETC to the deposit address shown. The partner executes the trade and pays out to your address — SwapRocket never holds your coins, and there is no account to create before you start.

Choosing a rate for ETC

Three offers are presented for every ETC exchange. The best rate returns the largest amount for the size you entered. The fastest route favours the partner with the shortest expected settlement time, which matters when the market is moving. The fixed rate locks the quoted amount for the duration of the order, so what you are shown is what arrives, at the cost of a slightly smaller payout. Floating offers can move with the market between deposit and settlement.

Networks and addresses for ETC

Ethereum Classic settles on ETC. Always send from and to an address on that network: a deposit sent over a different chain cannot be recovered by the exchange partner. When an asset exists on several chains, pick the matching network in the widget before copying the deposit address, and send a small test amount first if you are unsure.

Popular ETC pairs

Each pair below has its own page with a live quote, the current rate and the limits that apply to that route.

What is ETC? · Sourced guide · Updated 2026-09-22 · 9 sources cited

When a blockchain community splits over whether to reverse a specific set of transactions, what does it mean for the chain that keeps the original history?

In 2016, the Ethereum network faced a decision after a smart contract exploit moved a large amount of ETH: adopt a coordinated protocol change that reassigned those funds, or continue enforcing the ledger exactly as it already existed. Ethereum Classic is the continuation of the second choice, run today as an independent, EVM-compatible, proof-of-work chain with its own monetary policy. Its most useful story is not the fork itself but what its maintainers built afterward — a fixed, published issuance schedule and continued execution-layer compatibility with the Ethereum tooling ecosystem.

Continuing the original chain

Ethereum Classic is the blockchain that resulted from the portion of node operators and miners who continued producing blocks on the pre-existing Ethereum transaction history rather than adopting a change that altered account balances following the 2016 DAO exploit. Its full transaction history from genesis is unmodified relative to that decision point; it is the same chain, running forward under a policy of not reversing settled transactions.

Because both chains started from an identical codebase, ETC inherited the Ethereum Virtual Machine, the account-based state model, and Solidity-based smart contracts. From a technical standpoint, an ETC full node validates blocks and transactions using the same execution semantics that early Ethereum used, later diverging as each chain's client software evolved along its own path.^{[1], [2]}

Staying compatible with the EVM ecosystem

ETC's node software, developed through clients such as core-geth, implements the Ethereum Virtual Machine, meaning contracts written in Solidity or Vyper for Ethereum can generally be deployed on Ethereum Classic with the same bytecode semantics, subject to which EVM opcodes and gas rules a given ETC network upgrade has adopted. This compatibility keeps existing EVM development tools, libraries, and auditing practices applicable to contracts deployed on ETC.

Maintaining compatibility while running an independent chain requires ETC's client teams to track which Ethereum execution-layer changes to adopt and which to decline, since the two networks are no longer bound to update together. Each such decision is made through Ethereum Classic Improvement Proposals, the project's own public specification process, rather than by automatically mirroring upstream Ethereum releases.^{[2], [3]}

A monetary policy fixed in advance

Ethereum Classic adopted ECIP-1017, a monetary policy that introduces a disinflationary issuance schedule: the block reward is reduced by 20 percent at fixed intervals called eras, roughly every five million blocks, converging over time toward a bounded total supply rather than continuing at a constant or purely discretionary rate. The proposal defines the exact era length and reduction formula so that any node can calculate the correct reward at a given block height without external input.

This differs from Ethereum's own post-2016 issuance path, which has changed with subsequent protocol upgrades on that separate chain. ETC's issuance policy is documented as an ECIP with a specific activation height and formula, and enforcing it is part of what every ETC-validating node does when it checks a block's reward against the chain's consensus rules.^{[4], [3]}

Proof-of-work as the deliberate choice retained

While Ethereum moved its consensus mechanism from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake in 2022, Ethereum Classic's client teams and node operators kept proof-of-work mining as the chain's method of ordering blocks and securing the network. Miners contribute computational work to produce blocks and are rewarded according to the ECIP-1017 schedule described above.

Keeping proof-of-work means ETC's security model continues to rest on the cost of acquiring and running mining hardware, the same property that secures Bitcoin, rather than on a validator set defined by staked ETC. This is documented in the project's own technical materials as a defining, retained characteristic of the network rather than an interim step toward a different consensus mechanism.^{[1], [2]}

The trade-off in tracking a separate chain by choice

Remaining EVM-compatible while running independent client development means ETC's maintainers have to evaluate every relevant Ethereum execution-layer change on its own merits and decide, through the ECIP process, whether to adopt an equivalent. This keeps ETC's rules under its own community's control, at the cost of tooling and opcode support sometimes trailing or diverging from what Ethereum mainnet supports at a given time.

Fixed, published issuance under ECIP-1017 gives ETC predictable long-run supply growth that does not depend on future governance votes to change it. The same fixedness means ETC's monetary policy cannot be adjusted through a coordinated protocol change the way a chain with more flexible issuance rules could, which is a constraint stated openly in the proposal rather than a hidden limitation.^{[4], [3]}

What this means when you swap ETC

ETC uses its own network and chain ID, distinct from Ethereum mainnet, even though addresses share the same hexadecimal format. Sending ETC to an Ethereum mainnet address, or the reverse, will not automatically convert between the two networks; always confirm the network selection matches ETC before sending.

ETC transactions settle through proof-of-work block production, so treat confirmation counts the way you would for any proof-of-work chain: wait for the number of blocks a receiving service specifies before considering a deposit final, and check gas price and network congestion when sending a contract-interacting transaction rather than a simple transfer.

Sources and evidence (9)

[1] Ethereum Classic continues the original, unaltered Ethereum transaction history following the 2016 protocol divergence. Ethereum Classic — official site · verified 2026-09-22 Confirmed
[2] Core-geth is an Ethereum Classic client implementing the Ethereum Virtual Machine and EVM-compatible execution semantics. GitHub — etclabscore/core-geth · verified 2026-09-22 Confirmed
[3] Changes to Ethereum Classic are proposed and documented publicly as numbered Ethereum Classic Improvement Proposals. GitHub — ethereumclassic/ECIPs · verified 2026-09-22 Confirmed
[4] ECIP-1017 defines a disinflationary monetary policy reducing the block reward by 20 percent every five-million-block era. Ethereum Classic Improvement Proposals — ECIP-1017 · verified 2026-09-22 Confirmed
[5] The ECIP index publishes the full, numbered record of accepted and draft Ethereum Classic protocol changes. Ethereum Classic Improvement Proposals — index · verified 2026-09-22 Confirmed
[6] ECIP-1099 calibrated the Ethash epoch length for Ethereum Classic, adjusting the mining data set schedule for the network. Ethereum Classic Improvement Proposals — ECIP-1099 · verified 2026-09-22 Confirmed
[7] ECIP-1049 is a published proposal to change the Ethereum Classic proof-of-work hashing algorithm to Keccak-256. Ethereum Classic Improvement Proposals — ECIP-1049 · verified 2026-09-22 Reported
[8] The Ethereum Virtual Machine executes contract bytecode with a stack-based instruction set and gas-metered operations. ethereum.org — Ethereum Virtual Machine · verified 2026-09-22 Confirmed
[9] Ethereum Classic documents its guiding principle of an unaltered, immutable transaction history. Ethereum Classic — Why Classic · verified 2026-09-22 Confirmed

Profile last reviewed 2026-09-22. Historical background only — not investment advice.

Fees and pricing

Zero added fees: SwapRocket does not add a platform fee, a minimum or a withdrawal charge — the rate you see is the rate you get. Blockchain network fees are shown in full before you confirm, and the final amount you receive is quoted up front.

SwapRocket does not add a separate fee or markup to the provider quote. SwapRocket may earn a commission from the liquidity provider when a completed swap is referred through our platform. Provider spreads and applicable network costs are reflected in the quoted amount.

Network fees are set by the blockchain, not by SwapRocket. No account, no subscription and no withdrawal charge. Live support is available 24/7.

ETC swap FAQ

How do I swap Ethereum Classic (ETC) instantly on SwapRocket?

Pick ETC as the asset you want to receive, choose what you're paying with, paste your wallet address, and confirm. SwapRocket hands your order to the provider whose quote pays out the most at that moment, and most swaps complete in under 10 minutes — no SwapRocket account needed.

Can I swap ETC with no KYC?

No SwapRocket account or identity documents are needed to start a crypto-to-crypto swap of ETC. The provider that executes the swap may still request identity verification or hold a swap for review under its own AML and sanctions policy, regardless of amount. Selling to a bank account goes through a regulated payment partner that verifies the payer; card purchases on SwapRocket are coming soon.

Is swapping Ethereum Classic on SwapRocket non-custodial?

Yes. SwapRocket never holds your funds. The provider that executes the swap receives your deposit, holds it only for the duration of the swap, and sends ETC to the wallet address you provide.

Which network does ETC use here?

SwapRocket supports Ethereum Classic on the ETC network. Always double-check that your receiving wallet supports this network before confirming.

What fees apply when I swap ETC?

SwapRocket adds no fee or markup to the provider's quote and may earn a commission from the provider on a completed swap. The provider's spread and any network cost it deducts on delivery are already reflected in the ETC amount shown; the network fee your own wallet charges to send the deposit is separate. Spreads vary by provider, pair and size, so compare the quoted receive amount.

More on fees, limits, KYC and timing: read the full crypto swap FAQ.