The Ethereum blockchain had its strongest 12 months of operation in historical past in 2025, processing file transaction volumes and securing a big portion of the DeFi market.
Nevertheless, the crypto property that underpin the community didn’t mirror that development, posting double-digit losses for the 12 months.
In accordance with crypto slate In accordance with the information, ETH has fallen 10% for the reason that starting of the 12 months and is buying and selling under $3,000. Its efficiency in opposition to the principle digital asset Bitcoin has additionally lagged, with the ETH/BTC ratio falling 6% for the reason that starting of the 12 months.
This distinction highlights a elementary shift within the economics of the world’s most generally used business blockchain.
Whereas community utilities have soared, know-how upgrades geared toward decreasing prices for customers have considerably decreased the income flowing to the core community, decoupling Ether’s value from its on-rails exercise.
$100 million loss
One of the crucial necessary elements in Ethereum’s monetary state of affairs this 12 months was the collapse of the “hire” paid by the Layer 2 community.
These networks bundle transactions to avoid wasting prices earlier than being settled on the principle Ethereum blockchain, and beforehand served as a serious supply of price earnings.
In 2024, Layer 2 networks generated $277 million in whole income. Roughly $113 million (41%) of this quantity was paid to Ethereum’s mainnet to course of information and safe the community.
In 2025, that income mannequin shall be reversed. Layer 2 community whole income fell 53% to $129.17 million as end-user charges had been lowered, in response to Growthepie information.
Nevertheless, the fee paid to the Ethereum mainnet has plummeted even additional. Layer 2 Community paid roughly $10 million to Ethereum for safety in 2025, representing lower than 10% of its whole income.
The remaining $119 million was retained by layer 2 operators as income.
This successfully implies that Ethereum has sacrificed greater than $100 million in assure price earnings this 12 months to make sure its long-term survival.
This lower is as a result of “Dencun” improve carried out final 12 months. This replace efficiently lowered transaction charges, successfully subsidizing the expansion of the ecosystem by decreasing the income that Ethereum collects from the “layer 2” community constructed on prime of it.
This permits the community to deal with bigger quantities of site visitors with out clogging up the principle blockchain or inflating charges.
Whereas the technical implementation has succeeded in making Ethereum cheaper and sooner, it has eliminated a serious driver of demand for the ETH token.
Beforehand, excessive community utilization led to excessive costs, and a few of it was “burned”, decreasing provide and supporting costs.
With charges reaching an all-time low in 2025, deflationary pressures on token provide have considerably eased. Consequently, Ethereum’s inflation price has elevated by 0.204% for the reason that September 2022 merger occasion.
Coinbase community dominates revenue share
The restructuring of Ethereum’s financial construction has created a consolidated marketplace for scaling options, with one dominant participant capturing nearly all of the sector’s income.
Base, a layer 2 community developed by US public change Coinbase, generated greater than $75 million in income in 2025. This determine represented nearly 60% of all the Layer 2 sector’s income that 12 months.
Base’s monetary efficiency far outperformed its decentralized rivals. Arbitrum has held a major lead out there to this point, coming in second place with roughly $25 million in income.
Decrease values had been seen with different rivals. Polygon Community generated $5 million in income, whereas ConsenSys-backed Linea introduced in $3.94 million. Optimism, one other early chief within the scaling class, earned about $3.83 million.
This focus of income marks a departure from 2024, when the market was extra evenly distributed. Within the earlier 12 months, Arbitrum generated $42 million, Linea $36.6 million, and Scroll $35 million.
The rise of Base means that distribution channels and consumer expertise have develop into figuring out elements within the scaling wars.
Coinbase has been in a position to centralize its retail actions by itself rails by integrating its community instantly into its change merchandise.
Consequently, a good portion of the worth generated by the Ethereum ecosystem is now amassed on the steadiness sheets of particular person company entities fairly than on the broader community individuals.
Market share reaches multi-year excessive
Regardless of ETH’s value efficiency, institutional adoption of the Ethereum community continues to speed up.
Obtainable information exhibits that buyers should not leaving the ecosystem in quest of sooner or cheaper blockchain alternate options, a development that characterizes the 2022 bear market.
By the use of background, Ethereum’s dominance within the DeFi sector grew from 2024 to 2025. The blockchain community’s mainnet at present secures roughly 64% of the whole worth locked (TVL) of DeFi functions, up from a cycle low of roughly 45% in 2022.
Leon Weidman, Head of Analysis at Onchain Headquarters, claimed that the market share of the Ethereum ecosystem is over 70%, together with property held in layer 2 networks akin to Base, Arbitrum, and Optimism.
This consolidation suggests a “flight to high quality” amongst giant capital allocators.
Because the business has matured, establishments have prioritized the safety and authorized readability of Ethereum over the speculative advantages of newer, extra unstable blockchains.
The community has successfully develop into the business’s funds layer, regardless that the particular mechanisms for capturing worth from its actions stay underneath strain.
On the identical time, analysts notice that the steadiness of the ecosystem stands in distinction to earlier market cycles.
Buying and selling volumes accelerated in direction of the top of the 12 months with out the ‘prime blowout’ hypothesis usually seen throughout peak intervals, suggesting that this development is being pushed by elementary exploitation fairly than short-term buying and selling frenzy.
Buyers weigh utility versus worth
However, the widening hole between Ethereum’s operational success and market valuation presents a blended outlook for buyers heading into 2026.
The ten% year-to-date drop in ETH value displays uncertainty concerning the token’s position on this new low-fee surroundings.
The direct correlation between transaction quantity development and token value development has damaged down because the mainnet is successfully subsidizing the layer 2 community.
Market observers notice that whereas the ecosystem is more healthy than ever, the financial advantages are at present siled into the applying and scaling layers.
However community proponents argue that this can be a crucial transitional step. They declare that Ethereum has secured its place as the worldwide commonplace for blockchain funds by reducing prices and growing capability.
They are saying this moat will finally improve the long-term worth of the token, with BitMine Chairman Tom Lee believing the asset might exceed $5,000 subsequent 12 months.