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Ethereum Update January 2025

stakefish

stakefish

— 3 min read

Ethereum Ecosystem Update: January 2025

As we approach the end of January 2025, the Ethereum ecosystem continues to evolve rapidly. Here are key developments and news from this month:

Vitalik's 2025 Strategy

Vitalik Buterin unveiled a new strategy (in addition to a milady) for scaling Ethereum in 2025, focusing on simultaneous development of Layer 1 and Layer 2 solutions. This approach aims to address coordination problems within the ecosystem while maintaining Ethereum's core values of decentralization and social impact.

Key points of Buterin's strategy include:

  • Increasing blob space on L1 to enable short-term scaling.
  • Improving Ethereum's proof-of-stake, storage, EVM, and cryptography capabilities.
  • Continuing innovation in L2 solutions.

Layer 2 Advancements

Founders from leading Ethereum L2 networks, including Base, Optimism, and Arbitrum, have expressed willingness to adopt "based" and "native" rollups in sequencing call #17.

The FABRIC infrastructure standard, designed to facilitate based rollups, is gaining support. Taiko, the first L2 to adopt based rollups, is ready to implement FABRIC to address interoperability issues.

Pectra Upgrade

Ethereum's next major upgrade, Pectra, is anticipated to go live in mid-March. This will be Ethereum's largest upgrade in history (as measured by number of EIPs/features included). Read more at pectra.wtf.

Institutional Push with Etherealize

A new organization called "Etherealize" has emerged as an institutional marketing and product arm for the Ethereum ecosystem. Its mission is to bridge the gap between traditional finance (TradFi) and Ethereum by providing resources and tools tailored for institutions.

Etherealize aims to:

  • Promote Ethereum adoption among financial institutions,
  • Develop products that align with TradFi needs, and
  • Strengthen Ethereum’s position as the leading smart contract platform.

Staking Performance and Ecosystem Updates

Ethereum staking has seen significant developments and performance metrics in January 2025:

  1. Institutional Adoption: PostFinance AG, a Swiss state-owned bank, launched an Ethereum staking service, allowing customers to earn passive income. This move could pave the way for similar offerings from other financial institutions.
  2. Trumps WorldLiberityFi purchases over $250M of ETH and stETH.
  3. Paradigm pushes for Ethereum acceleration.
  4. Staking Integration in ETFs: Analysts predict that Ethereum ETFs may integrate staking in 2025, potentially boosting inflows and driving ETH's value. 
  5. Total Value Staked: As of February 3, 2025, the total amount of staked ETH is 33.6M, representing 27.91% of the network. Network APR is 3.16%. 

Additionally, Ethereum remains unchallenged by so-called "ETH killers." Despite competition from over 30 rival platforms, none have come close to matching Ethereum’s developer activity, ecosystem size, or market dominance. 

Leadership Challenges at the Ethereum Foundation

The Ethereum Foundation has faced internal debates over leadership direction. However, these discussions have not slowed progress on key initiatives like scaling solutions and ecosystem support. The Foundation remains committed to fostering innovation while addressing community concerns about transparency and governance.

Despite a lackluster start to the year, historical data offers a more bullish outlook for Ethereum in the coming months.

In the meantime, stack Ethereum staking rewards with us at stake.fish.

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