Ethereum Dominates 2025: DeFi TVL Tops $99B, Stablecoin Volume Hits $18.8T
Ethereum reported sturdy progress throughout decentralized finance (DeFi) and stablecoin exercise in 2025.
This was primarily as a result of decrease transaction prices and increasing infrastructure contributed to elevated utilization throughout the community.
DeFi and Stablecoin Activity Increase
In a New Year’s submit shared by way of X, the chain revealed that it recorded over $99 billion in whole worth locked throughout 2025, in accordance with knowledge from DefiLlama. This determine locations Ethereum’s DeFi TVL at greater than 9 instances that of the following largest Layer 1 ecosystem. Stablecoin utilization additionally remained high all year long, with $18.8 trillion settled on the community.
These figures coincided with a decline in transaction prices throughout the ecosystem. Fees on Ethereum Layer 1 fell to 5-year lows, whereas Layer 2 networks recorded transaction prices under $0.01, decreasing bills for funds, remittances, and savings-related exercise. At the identical time, expanded paymaster infrastructure enabled purposes to cowl the charges for customers, usually eradicating the necessity to maintain ETH for gasoline.
Crypto platforms additionally expanded their use of Ethereum throughout 2025. Robinhood, Gemini, and Kraken all launched tokenized shares on the chain utilizing Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks, subsequently offering prolonged entry to United States equities past commonplace market hours. Robinhood additionally introduced plans to construct its personal Layer 2 community utilizing Arbitrum’s Orbit know-how.
Meanwhile, regulatory readability supported the launch of latest crypto-focused neobanks, which launched cost playing cards and rewards packages whereas reporting thousands and thousands of {dollars} in every day spending quantity.
Network Upgrades and Ecosystem Expansion
Beyond DeFi and stablecoins, Ethereum’s ecosystem continued to expand throughout institutional and technical fronts. Institutional participation elevated by way of the enlargement of ETH digital asset treasuries, with greater than $35 billion price of ETH held in exchange-traded funds and strategic reserves.
Additionally, extra establishments used Ethereum good contracts to handle capital on-chain, entry DeFi-based yield methods, and distribute over $12 billion in real-world belongings.
The community’s rollup-focused roadmap additionally progressed through the yr. Combined throughput throughout Layer 2 networks reached a mean of 5,600 transactions per second, whereas the Fusaka improve, deployed in December, elevated blob capability and decreased Layer 2 prices. The Layer 1 gasoline restrict was additionally raised to 60 million, increasing settlement capability by roughly 33%.
Ethereum celebrated 10 years of being reside in July 2025, which was marked by a file of greater than 88 million good contracts deployed, whereas every day transactions reached a brand new high of 1.74 million. Developer exercise additionally remained elevated, with 32,000 lively builders throughout the ecosystem and over 16,000 new ones becoming a member of between January and September.
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