Ethereum closes 2025 having firmly established itself as the secure foundation for an expanding digital economy.
The network’s annual ecosystem review shows sustained growth across finance, infrastructure, institutions, developers, and real-world adoption. From record DeFi liquidity to trillion-dollar settlement volumes, Ethereum increasingly operates less like experimental technology and more like global infrastructure.
On-chain data tells the story clearly. Ethereum’s DeFi total value locked surpassed $99 billion, stablecoin settlement volume reached $18.8 trillion, and rollups processed transactions at an average of 5,600 TPS for the first time. Layer 2 fees dropped below $0.01, while institutions, governments, developers, and consumer apps continued to build at scale.
As Ethereum marks ten years of uninterrupted uptime, the network is no longer just emerging. It is becoming essential.
DeFi And Payments Anchor Ethereum As A Global Financial Base Layer
Decentralized finance reinforced Ethereum’s role as the financial backbone of the internet in 2025. Transaction costs on Layer 1 fell to five-year lows, while Layer 2 fees dropped below one cent, making payments, remittances, and savings products viable for everyday use. Paymaster infrastructure matured throughout the year, allowing major applications to abstract transaction fees entirely and onboard users without friction.
Liquidity continued to concentrate on Ethereum. DeFi TVL exceeded $99 billion, more than nine times larger than the next-largest Layer 1 ecosystem, according to DefiLlama. Stablecoins cemented their role as digital dollars, with $18.8 trillion settled on Ethereum across L1 and L2s, highlighting the chain’s dominance in global value transfer.
Traditional finance accelerated its presence on Ethereum rails. Robinhood, Gemini, and Kraken rolled out tokenized stock products using Ethereum infrastructure, expanding access to U.S. equities with extended trading hours. Robinhood also announced plans to build its own Layer 2 network using Arbitrum’s Orbit stack, signaling confidence in Ethereum’s rollup ecosystem.
Smart wallets entered production following the Pectra upgrade in May, pushing programmability directly into user accounts. Prediction markets emerged as a mainstream source of macroeconomic insight, moving $20 billion in volume across Ethereum networks during the year. From micropayments per API call to stablecoin-powered remittances, Ethereum increasingly functions as programmable financial infrastructure rather than a niche crypto platform.
Institutional Capital And Real-World Assets Move Onchain
Institutional adoption accelerated sharply in 2025, driven by clear utility and maturing compliance frameworks. Ethereum-based digital asset treasuries expanded, with ETFs and strategic reserves collectively holding over $35 billion in ETH, according to SER. Public companies increasingly managed balance sheets onchain, using smart contracts to automate yield strategies and capital allocation.
Real-world asset issuance reached new heights. Over $12 billion in tokenized assets were distributed on Ethereum, spanning bonds, funds, and structured financial products. The world’s largest banks, asset issuers, and payment processors now rely on Ethereum Layer 2s for verifiable settlement, composable scale, and 24/7 programmable finance.
These shifts reflect a broader change in how institutions interact with blockchains. Ethereum is no longer treated as speculative exposure. It is used as settlement infrastructure, with smart contracts replacing manual processes and fragmented databases.
Rollups And Interoperability Validate Ethereum’s Scaling Vision
Ethereum’s rollup-centric roadmap proved itself in 2025. The Layer 2 ecosystem expanded rapidly as Celo completed its transition to an Ethereum L2, while Ronin and Nillion announced plans to follow. Combined rollup throughput surpassed 5,600 transactions per second on average, marking a milestone for scalable execution without compromising security.
Technical upgrades reinforced this growth. December’s Fusaka upgrade introduced PeerDAS, increasing blob capacity by up to eight times and driving L2 costs lower. The Layer 1 gas limit was raised to 60 million, expanding settlement capacity by approximately 33% and laying the groundwork for further scaling in 2026.
Interoperability advanced alongside throughput. Standards like ERC-7683 unified order and settlement interfaces across chains. The Open Intents Framework, launched by over 30 teams, improved cross-chain execution speed and security. In November, the Ethereum Interop Layer entered testnet, moving the ecosystem closer to trustless, single-signature interactions across rollups.
Together, these developments push Ethereum toward a seamless, unified network experience, one where users no longer need to think about which chain they are using.
Privacy, AI Agents, And Digital Identity Take Center Stage
Privacy emerged as a core focus in 2025. Privacy-focused protocols on Ethereum reached new all-time highs in value locked, growing over 60% year-over-year, according to DefiLlama. Privacy-preserving rollups matured, enabling confidential execution while preserving Ethereum’s settlement guarantees. By year-end, over 750 privacy-focused projects operated across the ecosystem, impacting wallets, DeFi, storage, and identity.
At the same time, AI agents became economic actors. With no bank accounts or passports, agents rely on Ethereum wallets and cryptographic proofs. The x402 payment standard enabled agent-to-agent commerce for compute, services, and data. Smart accounts enforced spending permissions, while ERC-8004 emerged as a standard for agent discovery and reputation. More than 7,500 agents registered on testnets, signaling the rise of a machine-driven economy settled on Ethereum.
Ethereum also became a coordination layer for real-world identity. Bhutan migrated its national digital identity system to Ethereum, anchoring over 200,000 citizen IDs onchain. Proof-of-personhood tools matured, supporting sybil-resistant voting and funding. Humanitarian efforts, pop-up cities like ETH Enugu in Nigeria, and global donation campaigns demonstrated Ethereum’s growing role in real-world coordination.
Consumer Apps, Developers, And A Decade Of Resilience
Consumer adoption continued to scale throughout 2025. Decentralized applications on Ethereum Layer 1 recorded 244 million unique active wallets, according to DappRadar. Ethereum led NFT volume and royalties across the year, while millions of collections launched across L1 and L2s. “White Rabbit,” an anime crowdfunded via Ethereum-based NFTs, won a 2025 Emmy, marking a milestone for community-funded media.
DAO tooling matured as well. Decentralized organizations governed billions in assets using increasingly sophisticated governance systems and tokenomics models. Regulatory clarity around DAO structures helped organizations scale impact across finance, art, infrastructure, and social initiatives.
The developer ecosystem remained unmatched. Ethereum surpassed 88 million deployed smart contracts, recorded a daily transaction peak of 1.74 million, and maintained the largest developer community in crypto, with 32,000 active developers and over 16,000 new builders joining in 2025 alone.
In July, Ethereum celebrated 10 years live. With a decade of uninterrupted uptime, the network has earned trust through persistence, upgrades, and global participation.
In 2025, Ethereum solidified itself as the secure foundation for our growing digital civilization. From industry-leading adoption to new technology that reinforces protocol resilience, here are 12 themes that defined the past year:
1/ DeFi reinforced Ethereum's role as the…
— Ethereum (@ethereum) January 6, 2026
After ten years, Ethereum is no longer just technology in progress. It is infrastructure that endures, scaffolding for a digital civilization that continues to grow, coordinate, and settle value on a global scale.
Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.
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