Recently, I conducted another routine tracking of the ETH ecosystem, and the only takeaway is that researching the ETH ecosystem is a complete waste of time.
1/ Core on-chain data completely collapsed in Q1 2025 (before it was just hanging on by Base's breath).
2/ The growth momentum that the teachers enjoyed at the beginning of 2024 has completely extinguished. Traditional sectors like DeFi, L2, and NFT are all barely alive; AI and Memecoins have nothing to do with ETH. Stablecoins seem to be holding steady to save face (but in reality, competitors are growing rapidly, and being flat is equivalent to a decline), and RWA only has paper TVL with no actual participants.
3/ $ETF Staking seems like a potential benefit, but in reality, it is just the last hope for holding up ETH prices. Large funds are using capital with a cost of 5% USD to buy your 2% APY Staked ETH. By the way, this doesn’t even account for management fees and custody fees. Is this a case of a brain being caught in the door?
