According to Ethereum’s official team’s 2025 year-end ecosystem report, Ethereum achieved structural growth across areas including DeFi, scalability, institutional adoption and links to real-world assets (RWA).

As of 2025, total value locked (TVL) in Ethereum-based DeFi stood at $99 billion, more than 9 times the level of the second-ranked layer-1 blockchain. Annual stablecoin settlement totaled $18.8 trillion.

Progress also came on scalability. Average rollup-based transactions per second reached 5,600 for the first time, and Layer 2 fees fell to below $0.01, noticeably lowering barriers to entry for ordinary users.

Institutional participation was also active. ETH holdings tallied through ETFs and strategic holdings exceeded $35 billion, and RWA issuance grew to more than $12 billion. An analysis said this shows faster links between Web3 and traditional finance through on-chain use of real-world assets such as real estate and bonds.

Ethereum also evolved technically. In 2025, Ethereum carried out the Pectra and Fusaka upgrades, and the Layer 1 gas limit was raised to 60 million. The cumulative number of smart contract deployments was tallied at 88 million, peak daily transactions at 1.74 million, and active developers at around 32,000.