#EthereumFuture 2024, Ethereum has seen key developments that significantly impacted its ecosystem and its role in institutional finance. A major highlight was the approval of the first spot Ethereum ETFs by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in May, with trading starting in July.

These spot ETFs directly track Ethereum’s price, offering investors a simpler way to gain exposure to the asset, which is expected to attract significant institutional inflows. The best Ethereum ETFs include the Greyscale Ethereum Mini Trust (ETH), Fidelity Ethereum Fund (FETH), and the Bitwise Ethereum ETF (ETHW).

Moreover, the Dencun upgrade was set to enhance scalability and lower transaction costs on the Ethereum network. This upgrade, particularly through Proto-Danksharding (EIP-4844), reduced gas fees for Layer 2 rollups, making Ethereum more efficient and competitive. However, Solana’s recent outperformance in daily active users and transaction volume has shown growing competition. These metrics underscore the need for Ethereum to continue innovating to maintain its market dominance.

According to the Ethereum Foundation, the next-in-line Prague-Electra (Pectra) upgrade is expected to be launched on April 30, 2025. The upgrade will address some of the issues and introduce new updates, including increasing the staking amount per validator from exactly 32 ETH to anywhere between 32 ETH and 2048 ETH.

It’s also important to note the events from late January 2025, when numerous influential Ethereum supporters called out the Ethereum Foundation for falling behind the competition despite its burn rate. While the organization operated with $800 million, it burned through $240 million combined in 2022 and 2023 alone