Original author: Prathik Desai
Original compilation: Chopper, Foresight News
As a staunch bullish investor in ETH, I have developed an annoying habit this year. Every day I open the ETH price chart and silently calculate how much my investment portfolio has lost. After calculating, I close the market page, hoping not to wait too long to turn my losses into profits.
As the year comes to an end, I think most investors who bought ETH at the beginning of the year are likely to feel disappointed. However, in the past 12 months, despite the lackluster performance of ETH's price in terms of wealth appreciation, the Ethereum blockchain has stood out among its competitors.
If 'making money' is the measure, 2025 is undoubtedly a terrible year. But stepping away from the perspective of token returns, holding ETH in 2025 has become much more convenient, mainly due to the rise of market tools such as ETFs and cryptocurrency corporate treasuries (DAT). Additionally, the two major upgrades of Pectra and Fusaka completed within the year have allowed this public chain to support large-scale applications more easily and efficiently.
In this article, I will reveal why the development trajectories of the Ethereum network and the ETH token in 2025 may diverge, and what implications this has for their future directions.
Ethereum has finally entered the mainstream
For most of the past two years, 'institutional-level ETH investment' has felt like an unattainable dream for many. By June 30, the cumulative capital inflow into ETH ETFs since their inception a year ago was just over $4 billion. At that time, publicly listed companies had only just begun to consider incorporating ETH into their corporate treasuries.
A turning point quietly emerged in the second half of this year.
From June 1, 2025, to September 30, 2025, the cumulative capital inflow into ETH ETFs grew nearly fivefold, surpassing the $10 billion mark.
This wave of ETF capital not only brought in capital but also triggered a psychological shift in the market. It significantly lowered the threshold for ordinary investors to buy ETH, expanding its audience from blockchain developers and traders to a third group—ordinary investors wishing to allocate this second-largest cryptocurrency asset globally.
This brings us to another significant industry change that emerged this year.
Ethereum welcomes new buyers.
Over the past five years, influenced by the investment strategies proposed by the CEO of Strategy Company, Bitcoin corporate treasuries seem to have become the only paradigm for cryptocurrency asset inclusion in balance sheets. Before this model exposed its vulnerabilities, this strategy was once seen as the simplest path for companies to allocate cryptocurrency assets: publicly listed companies purchase scarce cryptocurrency assets, driving up coin prices, which in turn boosts company stock prices; subsequently, companies can raise more funds by issuing additional shares at a premium.
Because of this, when ETH corporate treasuries became a hot topic in the industry in June this year, many people felt confused. The rise of ETH corporate treasuries is fundamentally due to its ability to achieve functionalities that Bitcoin treasuries cannot reach. Particularly after Ethereum co-founder and ConsenSys CEO Joe Lubin announced his joining the board of SharpLink Gaming and leading its $425 million ETH treasury investment strategy, the market realized the foresight of this arrangement.
Shortly thereafter, numerous companies began to follow the practices of SharpLink Gaming.
As of now, the top five ETH treasury enterprises hold a total of 5.56 million ETH, accounting for over 4.6% of the total supply, valued at over $16 billion at current prices.
When investors hold an asset through packaging tools like ETFs and corporate treasuries, the attributes of that asset gradually align with 'balance sheet items.' It will be included in the corporate governance framework, requiring regular financial disclosures, special discussions in the board of directors, quarterly performance updates, and will also be subject to supervision and review by the risk committee.
Moreover, the staking characteristics of ETH give ETH treasuries an advantage that is hard to compare with Bitcoin treasuries.
Bitcoin treasuries can only create returns for companies when they sell Bitcoin at a profit; however, ETH treasuries are different. Companies only need to hold ETH and stake it to provide security for the Ethereum network, earning more ETH as staking rewards.
If companies can combine staking rewards with main business revenue, it can make ETH treasury operations sustainable.
It was only from this time that the market began to truly recognize Ethereum's value.
The 'low-key' Ethereum has finally gained attention.
Those who have long followed Ethereum's development know that Ethereum has never been good at proactive marketing. Without external events (such as the launch of asset packaging tools, market cycle switches, or the birth of new narratives) to drive it, Ethereum tends to remain obscure until these external factors emerge, prompting people to realize its potential.
This year, the rise of ETH corporate treasuries and the surge in ETF capital inflows have finally captured the market's attention for Ethereum. I measured this change in attention in a very intuitive way: observing whether retail investors, who usually have no interest in blockchain technology roadmaps, have started discussing Ethereum.
From July to September this year, Google Trends data showed a significant spike in Ethereum's search popularity, a trend that closely aligns with the development momentum of ETH corporate treasuries and ETFs. It is these traditional asset allocation channels that have ignited retail investors' curiosity about Ethereum, and curiosity has further transformed into market attention.
However, mere popularity is far from enough. Market attention is notoriously unpredictable; it can come quickly and leave just as fast. This brings us to another important reason why Ethereum supporters see 2025 as a 'year of great success': a key factor often overlooked by the outside world.
The on-chain dollar that supports the internet
When viewed beyond the short-term price chart and extended over time, the fluctuations in cryptocurrency prices are merely products of market sentiment swings. However, stablecoins and real-world asset tokenization (RWA) are entirely different; they have solid fundamentals supporting them and serve as a bridge connecting traditional financial systems and decentralized finance (DeFi).
In 2025, Ethereum remains the preferred platform for on-chain dollars, continuously supporting the circulation of stablecoins.
In the field of real-world asset tokenization, Ethereum also occupies an absolute dominant position.
As of the time of writing, the tokenized assets issued on the Ethereum network still account for half of the global total value of tokenized assets. This means that more than half of the real-world assets available for holders to buy, sell, and manage are issued on the Ethereum network.
This shows that ETFs have lowered the threshold for ordinary investors to buy ETH, while corporate treasuries provide investors with a pathway to hold ETH through compliant channels on Wall Street, allowing them to obtain leveraged ETH exposure.
All these advancements are further driving the integration of Ethereum with traditional capital markets, allowing investors to comfortably allocate ETH assets in a familiar regulatory environment.
Two major upgrades
In 2025, Ethereum completed two major technical upgrades. These upgrades significantly alleviated network congestion issues, enhanced system stability, and notably increased Ethereum's practicality as a reliable transaction settlement layer.
The Pectra upgrade officially launched in May this year, improving Ethereum's scalability through expanded data sharding (Blob), while providing greater compressed data storage for layer two networks, thus reducing transaction costs on layer two networks. This upgrade also increased Ethereum's transaction throughput, accelerated transaction confirmation speed, and further optimized the operational efficiency of applications centered around Rollup expansion solutions.
After the Pectra upgrade, the Fusaka upgrade followed closely, further enhancing Ethereum's network scalability and optimizing user experience.
Overall, Ethereum's core goal in 2025 is to optimize its evolution towards a reliable financial infrastructure. Both upgrades prioritize network stability, transaction throughput, and cost predictability. These features are crucial for Rollup expansion solutions, stablecoin issuers, and institutional users requiring on-chain value settlement. Although these upgrades have not significantly driven the correlation between Ethereum network activity and ETH prices in the short term, they have effectively enhanced Ethereum's reliability in scalable application scenarios.
Future Outlook
If we were to draw a simple and blunt conclusion about Ethereum's development in 2025, whether 'Ethereum succeeded' or 'Ethereum failed,' it would be difficult to find a clear answer.
On the contrary, the market in 2025 presents a more intriguing, yet somewhat frustrating fact:
In 2025, Ethereum successfully entered the investment portfolios of fund issuers and the balance sheets of publicly listed companies, and with the continuous inflow of institutional capital, it has consistently maintained its market attention.
However, ETH holders have experienced a disappointing year, as token price trends have severely decoupled from the vigorous development of the Ethereum network.
Investors who bought ETH at the beginning of the year are currently facing a loss of at least 15%. Although ETH briefly reached a historic high of $4953 in August this year, the good times were short-lived, and its price has since fallen back to a nearly five-month low.
Looking ahead to 2026, Ethereum will continue to lead the industry with solid technical upgrade results and a substantial scale of stablecoins and tokenization of real-world assets. If the Ethereum network can leverage these advantages, it may transform the momentum of ecological development into long-term price growth for ETH.