The Decade of Ethereum's Dominance: 10 Key Data Points Revealing Its Continued Lead

Ethereum has been around for 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 other public chains and Ethereum's own Layer 2 networks have diverted some user activity, Ethereum remains the core of the crypto economy. It continues to lead the industry in developer motivation, censorship resistance, and numerous key on-chain metrics.

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

1. Stablecoin Supply

Since stablecoins began circulating on-chain in 2017, the supply of stablecoins on the Ethereum network has been expanding at an astonishing rate. With the exception of a brief decline during the worst period of the last crypto bear market, the on-chain supply of stablecoins on the Ethereum network has historically 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 this sector, as an alternative medium for daily payments, is also attracting the attention of mainstream observers.

2. Total Value Locked (TVL)

Ethereum, as the original smart contract platform, despite facing various competition, still holds a leading position in terms of Total Value Locked (TVL). TVL represents the value that users trust and deposit into the on-chain financial system, making it an important metric for every crypto network.

Although Ethereum's TVL was severely impacted during the last bear market, this figure has been experiencing explosive growth since April of this year, reaching a new cycle high of over $88 billion and is actively chasing a new all-time high.

3. Active Users

Even though some user activity has migrated to L2, the daily active user count on Ethereum continues to grow, recently reaching a historical high of 580,000 unique addresses. During the past bear market, the number of daily active addresses remained stable and continued to rise throughout 2025.

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

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 over 1.7 million transactions per day. Since the network's inception, Ethereum has completed a total of 2.9 billion transactions.

When accounting for the numerous L2s on Ethereum, the daily activity volume of the entire ecosystem far exceeds 500 million transactions.

5. Institutional Adoption

In 2025, Ethereum broke its niche positioning and became a favored smart contract platform for institutions. Several well-known financial institutions chose to deploy projects within the Ethereum ecosystem. Ethereum has established itself as the dominant platform for Real World Assets (RWA), controlling nearly $7 billion in value and holding a 54% market share in the sector.

Recently, Ethereum-related companies and ETFs have been performing remarkably, attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in inflows daily, indicating that the Ethereum craze is sweeping the market.

6. Censorship Resistance

Ethereum L1 prides itself on its anti-censorship capabilities, providing an open financial system. Unlike other crypto networks that sometimes roll back transactions, Ethereum's culture ensures that all transactions are final, regardless of the consequences.

In 2025, compliance with the sanctions list significantly declined, with major block builders committing to process all transactions. Additionally, leading Ethereum developers are still committed to adopting a "include list" that will force all validators and block builders to include transactions solely based on fees.

7. Active Developers

The Ethereum core developer community remains strong, with 186 independent contributors, surpassing all other crypto projects. Ethereum's 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 steadily increased. Coupled with the price trend of ETH, the continuous rise in ETH staking has brought Ethereum's "economic security" to a historic high of $140 billion. This means that users' assets are increasingly protected from the malicious actors that may manipulate the blockchain ledger.

9. Contract Deployment Volume

The volume of contract deployments provides insight into the scope of on-chain activities. Although the deployment volume 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 multiple instances this year of daily new contract deployments exceeding 200,000. Despite developers shifting to L2, Ethereum L1 remains a vibrant activity hub.

10. ETH Price

Since May 2025, ETH has rebounded strongly, appreciating 75% against Bitcoin. Ethereum has become one of the best-performing crypto assets in recent months, with its market dominance nearly doubling.

Despite being 10% away from hitting an all-time high, this target could be achieved soon based on recent price performance. From a long-term trend perspective, the price of Ether is expected to continue rising.