Ethereum expanded its on-chain financial footprint in 2025, with its DeFi ecosystem surpassing $99 billion in total value locked, roughly nine times the next-largest Layer 1. Stablecoins on the network settled more than $18.8 trillion, while prediction markets processed $20 billion in on-chain volume. On the cost side, Ethereum said Layer 1 transaction fees fell to five-year lows and Layer 2 fees dropped below $0.01.
The figures came from Ethereum’s latest update on X. The post described Ethereum as infrastructure for digital money, applications, and digital identity rather than a standalone blockchain network. Lower fees were presented as a key reason payment, remittance, and savings products can reach ordinary users more efficiently, while smart wallets introduced through the Pectra upgrade improved security and programmability.
DeFi scale grows as tokenized stock activity expands
Ethereum also tied its growth to broader financial use cases. Robinhood, Gemini, and Kraken were cited as firms expanding stock token offerings on Ethereum-based rails. Combined with the large stablecoin settlement volume, that points to a network increasingly used for mainstream financial products. Prediction markets added to that trend, reaching $20 billion in on-chain volume during 2025.
Institutional participation also climbed. Digital asset treasuries held more than $35 billion in ETH, and banks and asset issuers used smart contracts to distribute over $12 billion in real-world assets. Ethereum framed those numbers alongside its protocol upgrades, linking technical capacity with rising treasury exposure and tokenized asset issuance.
Rollup roadmap advances with higher throughput and more blob capacity
Scaling remained a central theme. Ethereum said transactions across Layer 2 networks averaged 5,600 TPS in 2025. After the Fusaka upgrade introduced PeerDAS, blob capacity for L2s increased by 8x. Ethereum also said Layer 1 gas limits rose 33%, positioning the network for more L2 growth in 2026.
Interoperability was another part of the update. Ethereum highlighted ERC-7683 and the Ethereum Interop Layer as standards supporting cross-chain execution. The source did not provide extra deployment metrics, but the direction is clear: tighter coordination between networks, assets, and execution environments.
Privacy protocols, AI agents, and 244 million active wallets
Outside finance, Ethereum pointed to new growth in privacy tools and AI-driven activity. Privacy protocols on the network increased by more than 60% in 2025, covering private execution, wallets, and applications. AI agents were described as economic actors able to carry out payments and transactions autonomously through Ethereum wallets and the ERC-8004 standard.
Ethereum also listed real-world use cases including disaster relief, digital identity projects such as Bhutan’s, and pop-up decentralized cities. Consumer apps, on-chain social networks, and gaming brought in large user activity, with more than 244 million unique wallets active. At the same time, DAOs on Ethereum managed billions of dollars across community, cultural, and financial coordination.