Ethereum Ecosystem Outlook 2025: Pectra Upgrade, DeFi Innovation, and RWA Development

In 2024, the global cryptocurrency market capitalization reached a historic high of $3.8 trillion. Bitcoin's price broke through the $100,000 mark, and various popular cryptocurrencies performed remarkably well. The Ethereum ecosystem also experienced a colorful year, successfully completing the Dencun upgrade, and its market capitalization achieved a significant growth of approximately 48%.

Looking ahead to 2025, what important events in the Ethereum ecosystem are worth paying attention to?

Pectra Upgrade

The Ethereum Pectra upgrade is expected to officially launch in the first quarter of 2025. This upgrade will implement multiple Ethereum Improvement Proposals, including:

• Precompiled operations for the BLS12-381 curve
• Provide historical block hashes in the status
• Provide validator deposits on-chain
• Assets that can be triggered by the execution layer
• Move the committee index out of the verification signature
• PeerDAS
• General Execution Layer Request
• Increase MAX_EFFECTIVE_BALANCE
• Set EOA account code for a single transaction
• Increase call data fee
• EOF related technical agreements

Industry experts believe that the Pectra upgrade will fundamentally change the operation of the Ethereum security layer. After the upgrade is completed, developers have identified the Verkle Transition as the key reform direction for the next phase of Ethereum.

Verkle Transition

The Verkle Transition is a significant reform of the Ethereum state data structure. Developers plan to migrate all state data from the Merkle Patricia Tree structure to the Verkle structure. This change will enable nodes to generate smaller state data proofs, thereby improving node efficiency, particularly benefiting the operation of lightweight nodes, with the hope of reducing maintenance costs.

Development in the DeFi Field

In early 2025, a well-known DEX platform is expected to launch its Layer 2 solution. This could become the annual opening act in the DeFi field of the Ethereum ecosystem. The solution is built on the OP Stack and operates on the Ethereum Sepolia testnet. Since its launch in October 2024, the Sepolia testnet has processed over 50 million transactions and deployed over 4 million test contracts.

RWA Market Expansion

Decentralized Real World Assets (RWA) are expected to further unlock liquidity in 2025, particularly in the real estate and carbon credit sectors. At the same time, new explorations may emerge in the field of copyrighted works.

As of the end of 2024, RWA has locked approximately $14.9 billion in total assets, with over 80,000 asset holders. Notably, Ethereum holds an 81% dominance in the current RWA market. Industry analysts predict that RWA will be one of the main forces driving a strong rebound for Ethereum in 2025.

Stablecoin continues to grow

Stablecoins have become one of the most successful applications in the field of crypto assets, mainly relying on blockchain networks such as Ethereum, Solana, and Tron to facilitate cross-chain transactions. In 2024, the circulating supply of stablecoins is expected to reach 200 billion, and this number may exceed 400 billion by 2025.

NFT Market Outlook

By the end of 2024, the weekly sales of Ethereum NFTs reached $304 million, a year-on-year increase of 76%, accounting for 66% of the total NFT sales for that week. The popularity of some well-known NFT series continues to rise, with the sales of a certain elemental series NFT increasing by 226% compared to the previous week.

This trend indicates that the NFT market may encounter new opportunities in 2025. Coupled with the promotion of other emerging application scenarios, some media predict that ETH is expected to break through its historical high of 15,000 dollars in May 2025. Let us look forward to the Ethereum ecosystem shining even more brilliantly in the new year!