The future development prospects of Ethereum are broad, but it still faces challenges. With the continuous advancement of Ethereum 2.0, the PoS consensus mechanism will significantly reduce energy consumption and improve scalability, while sharding technology is expected to solve network congestion issues. The maturity of Layer 2 solutions (such as Optimism and Arbitrum) will further enhance transaction efficiency and lower gas fees.

Ecosystem applications such as DeFi, NFTs, and the metaverse will continue to thrive, driving Ethereum to become the core infrastructure of Web3. However, regulatory pressure (such as the SEC's determination of whether ETH is a security) may bring uncertainty, and competitors (such as Solana and Avalanche) are also vying for market share.

In the long term, if Ethereum can maintain technological innovation and ecological advantages, its position as the 'global settlement layer' will be more solidified, but it must be wary of technological iterations falling short of expectations or regulatory risks. Price fluctuations may persist, but the fundamentals are strongly supportive.