A Decade of Ethereum's Dominance: Ten Core Data Points Reveal Its Lasting Influence

Ethereum has been through ten years. After running continuously on the mainnet for a full decade, the on-chain data in 2025 shows that its activity is still experiencing explosive growth.

Although some alternative public chains and Ethereum's own Layer 2 networks have indeed diverted some user activity, Ethereum remains the core of the crypto economy. In terms of developer momentum, resistance to censorship, and several key on-chain metrics, it continues to lead industry development.

So, what does this pioneer of smart contracts look like after a decade of development? The following 10 sets of core data reveal the enduring dominance of Ethereum.

1. Stablecoin Supply

Since the stablecoins began circulating on-chain in 2017, the supply of stablecoins on the Ethereum network has experienced explosive growth. Aside from a brief decline during the most severe period of the last crypto bear market, the on-chain supply of stablecoins on the Ethereum network has almost consistently maintained an upward trend, surpassing the $100 billion mark by the end of 2024, with no signs of slowing down in recent months.

Currently, there are dozens of token issuers pegged to the US dollar, including some traditional financial giants. At the same time, recent legislation passed in the United States is clearing the way for institutional adoption, and stablecoins, as an alternative medium for daily payments, are also gaining mainstream attention.

2. Total Value Locked (TVL)

As one of the earliest smart contract platforms, despite multiple competing chains and their L2 networks siphoning off some locked value, Ethereum still leads in terms of TVL. TVL represents the amount of value that users trust and deposit into the on-chain financial system, which is the lifeblood of every crypto network.

Although during the last bear market, as cryptocurrency prices plummeted, Ethereum's TVL suffered a heavy blow, since April of this year, this figure has been experiencing explosive growth, reaching a new cycle high of over $88 billion and is actively chasing a new historical record.

3. Active Users

Even though some user activities have migrated to L2, it has not slowed down the growth of daily active users on Ethereum. This data recently reached a historical high of 580,000 unique addresses.

During the previous bear market, the number of daily active addresses remained stable and continued to rise throughout 2025, with more and more users turning to Ethereum L1 for its unique financial ecosystem attributes.

If the active addresses on Ethereum L2 are taken into account, this growth is even more astonishing. Multiple leading L2s have millions of active addresses every day.

4. Daily Trading Volume

With the increase in active users, the number of transactions has also grown. Since October 2023, the daily trading volume has continued to rise steadily, currently maintaining a floor price of over 1.7 million transactions per day.

Although this indicator can spike dramatically during periods of intense speculative activity, the daily trading volume of Ethereum has generally shown an upward trend historically, with a total of 2.9 billion transactions completed since the network's genesis.

When accounting for the numerous L2s of Ethereum, this statistic becomes even more optimistic. Including the leading L2s, the daily activity volume of the Ethereum ecosystem far exceeds 500 million transactions.

5. Institutional Adoption

In 2025, Ethereum broke away from its niche positioning and became the smart contract platform favored by institutions. Several politicians and financial giants chose to deploy projects on the Ethereum network. Ethereum L1 has established itself as the dominant platform for real-world assets (RWA), controlling nearly $7 billion in value and holding 54% of the market share in this field.

In recent months, the performance of Ethereum treasury companies has overshadowed their Bitcoin competitors. Similarly, the inflow of Ethereum ETFs has surged dramatically over the past few weeks, attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in funds daily, indicating that the Ethereum craze is sweeping the retail market.

6. Censorship Resistance

Ethereum L1 prides itself on its censorship resistance, providing an open financial system. Unlike other crypto networks that frequently roll back chains to prevent funds from falling into the hands of bad actors, Ethereum's culture is unique in its blind trust in code, ensuring that all transactions are final.

These values extend to block building, where most block builders choose to process all transactions, regardless of whether the address or smart contract has been marked as malicious. Compliance with the sanction list significantly decreased in 2025, with major block builders committing to process all transactions, regardless of their origin.

In addition, leading Ethereum developers are still committed to adopting a "inclusion list", which will force all validators and block builders to include transactions based solely on fees.

7. Active Developers

The status of the Ethereum core developer community remains strong. Although the number of active developers is below the peak of the last bull market cycle, the number of core active developers in Ethereum (with 186 independent contributors) still surpasses that of all other crypto projects.

The Ethereum EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) has become the default standard for blockchain-based development, and its applications enjoy broad compatibility on mainstream chains.

8. Economic Security

Since the launch of staking in November 2020, the amount of staked ETH has been steadily increasing. Combined with the explosive price trend of ETH, the continuous rise in ETH staking has brought Ethereum's economic security to a historic high of $140 billion.

With the increasing economic security of Ethereum, various users can trade with more confidence, knowing that their assets are increasingly protected from malicious actors who may manipulate the blockchain ledger.

9. Contract Deployment Volume

The volume of contract deployments provides insights into the evolving scope of on-chain activities. Each new contract represents potential new behaviors or use cases for users and can serve as a signal for on-chain innovation and practical growth.

Although the deployment of Ethereum contracts slowed down at the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025, there has been a fierce development boom in recent months, with the daily new contract deployment exceeding 200,000 multiple times this year. Despite developers shifting to L2, Ethereum L1 remains a vibrant activity hub.

10. Ether Price

The price of ETH is an important indicator of the success of Ethereum. Since May 2025, ETH has rebounded strongly, appreciating by 75% against Bitcoin. Ethereum has become one of the best-performing crypto assets in recent months, with its industry dominance nearly doubling.

Although there is still a 10% gap to reach the historical high, this target may be achieved soon based on recent price performance. Looking at the logarithmic chart, breaking through this level could bring the ETH price just one step away from $10,000.