In 2025, Ethereum won, but ETH didn't keep up

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Author: Prathik Desai

Compiled by: Chopper, Foresight News

As a steadfast bullish investor in ETH, I have developed a frustrating habit this year. Every day, I open the ETH price chart and silently calculate how much my portfolio has lost. After the calculation, I close the market page, hoping to turn losses into gains sooner rather than later.

As the year comes to an end, I believe most investors who bought ETH at the beginning of the year are likely to feel disappointed. However, over the past 12 months, despite ETH’s price performance and wealth appreciation effects being less than ideal, the Ethereum blockchain has stood out among its competitors.

If “making money” is the standard, 2025 has undoubtedly been a terrible year. But from a broader perspective beyond token returns, holding ETH in 2025 has become more convenient, thanks mainly to the rise of market-based tools such as ETFs and crypto treasury assets (DAT). Additionally, Ethereum’s two major upgrades, Pectra and Fusaka, completed within the year, have made this public chain easier and more efficient to support large-scale applications.

In this article, I will reveal why the development trajectory of the Ethereum network and ETH tokens in 2025 has diverged, and what this implies for their future.

Ethereum Finally Enters the Mainstream

For most of the past two years, “institutional-grade ETH investment” has seemed like an unattainable dream for many. As of June 30, the cumulative capital inflow into ETH ETFs since their debut a year ago was just over 4 billion USD. At that time, listed companies had just begun to consider including ETH in their treasury holdings.

A turning point quietly emerged in the second half of this year.

From June 1 to September 30, 2025, the cumulative capital inflow into ETH ETFs increased nearly fivefold, surpassing the 10 billion USD mark.

This ETF capital surge not only brought in capital but also triggered a psychological shift in the market. It significantly lowered the barrier for ordinary investors to buy ETH, expanding its audience from blockchain developers and traders to a third group — ordinary investors seeking exposure to this second-largest global cryptocurrency asset.

This inevitably leads to another major industry change this year.

Ethereum Welcomes New Buyers

Over the past five years, influenced by the investment strategy proposed by Strategy CEO, Bitcoin treasury assets have seemingly become the only paradigm for crypto asset on-balance-sheet management. Before this model revealed its flaws, it was regarded as the simplest way for enterprises to allocate crypto assets: listed companies purchase scarce cryptocurrencies, drive up prices, and then boost their stock prices; subsequently, they can issue new shares at a premium to raise more funds.

As a result, when ETH treasuries became a hot topic in June this year, many people were puzzled. The reason ETH treasuries gained prominence is that they can achieve functions that Bitcoin treasuries cannot. Especially after Ethereum co-founder and ConsenSys CEO Joe Lubin announced joining the board of SharpLink Gaming and leading its ETH treasury investment strategy valued at 425 million USD, the market realized the forward-looking nature of this approach.

Soon after, many companies followed SharpLink Gaming’s example.

As of now, the top five ETH treasury holders collectively hold 5.56 million ETH, accounting for over 4.6% of the total supply. At current prices, this is worth over 16 billion USD.

When investors hold an asset through tools like ETFs and treasuries, the asset’s attributes gradually align with “balance sheet items.” It becomes part of corporate governance, requiring regular financial disclosures, board discussions, quarterly performance updates, and oversight by risk committees.

Moreover, ETH’s staking feature gives ETH treasuries an advantage that Bitcoin treasuries cannot match.

Bitcoin treasuries can only generate profits when companies sell Bitcoin for gains; ETH treasuries are different. Companies only need to hold ETH and stake it to provide security for the Ethereum network, earning additional ETH as staking rewards.

If companies can combine staking income with core business revenue, ETH treasuries can achieve sustainable operations.

It was from this point that the market truly began to recognize Ethereum’s value.

The “Low-Key” Ethereum Finally Gains Attention

Long-term followers of Ethereum development know that Ethereum has never been good at proactive marketing. Without external events (such as the launch of asset wrapping tools, market cycle shifts, or new narratives), Ethereum often remains low-profile until these external factors emerge, prompting renewed interest in its potential.

This year, the rise of ETH treasuries and the surge in ETF capital inflows finally drew significant market attention to Ethereum. I measured this change in attention in a very straightforward way: by observing whether retail investors, who usually show little interest in blockchain roadmaps, have started discussing Ethereum.

From July to September this year, Google Trends data showed a sharp increase in Ethereum search interest, closely matching the momentum of ETH treasuries and ETF growth. These traditional asset allocation channels ignited retail investors’ curiosity about Ethereum, which further translated into increased market attention.

But popularity alone is not enough. Market attention is always unpredictable—coming quickly and fading just as fast. This leads to another key reason why Ethereum supporters see 2025 as the “year of great victory”: a crucial factor often overlooked by outsiders.

On-Chain USD as the Backbone of the Internet

Looking beyond short-term price charts and over longer timeframes, the fluctuations in cryptocurrency prices are mainly driven by market sentiment. However, stablecoins and real-world asset tokenization (RWA) are fundamentally different. They are supported by solid fundamentals and serve as bridges connecting traditional finance with decentralized finance (DeFi).

In 2025, Ethereum remains the dominant platform for on-chain USD, continuously supporting the circulation of stablecoins.

In the realm of real-world asset tokenization, Ethereum also holds an absolute leading position.

As of the time of writing, tokens representing real-world assets issued on the Ethereum network still account for more than half of the total value of tokenized assets worldwide. This means over half of the real-world assets available for trading and management by holders globally are issued on the Ethereum network.

This demonstrates that ETFs have lowered the barrier for ordinary investors to buy ETH, while treasury assets provide a pathway for investors to hold ETH through compliant Wall Street channels, enabling leveraged ETH exposure.

All these developments are further promoting the integration of Ethereum with traditional capital markets, allowing investors to confidently allocate ETH assets within familiar, compliant environments.

Two Major Upgrades

In 2025, Ethereum completed two major technical upgrades. These significantly alleviated network congestion, improved system stability, and greatly enhanced Ethereum’s practicality as a trusted transaction settlement layer.

The Pectra upgrade was officially launched in May this year. By expanding data sharding (Blob), it improved Ethereum’s scalability and provided larger compressed data storage space for Layer 2 networks, reducing transaction costs on Layer 2. This upgrade also increased transaction throughput and sped up confirmation times, further optimizing the efficiency of applications centered on the Rollup scaling solution.

Following Pectra, the Fusaka upgrade was quickly implemented, further enhancing Ethereum’s network scalability and optimizing user experience.

Overall, Ethereum’s core goal in 2025 is to evolve towards a reliable financial infrastructure. Both upgrades prioritized network stability, transaction throughput, and cost predictability. These features are crucial for Rollup scaling solutions, stablecoin issuers, and institutions that require on-chain value settlement. Although these upgrades did not immediately create a strong correlation between network activity and ETH price, they effectively strengthened Ethereum’s reliability in large-scale application scenarios.

Future Outlook

If one were to give a simple, blunt conclusion about Ethereum’s development in 2025, “Ethereum succeeded” or “Ethereum failed,” it would be difficult to find a clear answer.

Instead, the market in 2025 presents a more intriguing, yet somewhat frustrating, reality:

In 2025, Ethereum successfully entered the investment portfolios of fund issuance institutions and the balance sheets of listed companies, maintaining market attention through continuous institutional capital inflows.

However, ETH holders experienced a disappointing year, as the token’s price trend was severely disconnected from the booming development of the Ethereum network.

Investors who bought ETH at the beginning of the year are now at a minimum 15% unrealized loss. Although ETH briefly reached a historical high of 4953 USD in August, the good times did not last, and its price has now fallen back to a near five-month low.

Looking ahead to 2026, Ethereum is expected to continue leading the industry, supported by solid technological upgrades and the massive scale of stablecoins and real-world asset tokenization. If Ethereum’s network can leverage these advantages to gain momentum, it may turn the ecosystem’s growth into long-term price appreciation for ETH.