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- Ethereum stablecoin transfers reached a record $8T in Q4, signaling rising on-chain payments.
- Network activity hit new highs as transactions and active addresses expanded across 2025.
- Vitalik said PeerDAS and zkEVM upgrades position Ethereum to overcome the blockchain trilemma.
Stablecoin transfer volume on Ethereum reached a new all-time high in the fourth quarter of 2025. The total exceeded $8 trillion, according to Token Terminal. The figure nearly doubled the second-quarter tally of just above $4 trillion. It marked a major expansion in Ethereum’s function as a settlement layer for digital dollars.
Stablecoin issuance on Ethereum also increased during the year. Data from Blockworks shows supply rose about 43% in 2025. The amount climbed from roughly $127 billion to about $181 billion by year-end. The trend, according to analysts, shows real-world network payment activity.
Some market observers described the shift as real usage rather than speculative movements. One analyst posting on X said the pattern resembled global payments happening on-chain. They also added that broader institutional integrations have not yet fully arrived.
Ethereum Network Activity Hits New Highs
Network demand strengthened alongside the stablecoin surge. Daily Ethereum transactions reached a record 2.23 million in late December, according to Etherscan. The activity marked a 48% increase compared with the same period a year earlier. It reinforced the network’s rising operational load.
Token Terminal reported further growth in address activity. Monthly active addresses rose to 10.4 million in December. Daily unique sending and receiving addresses also surpassed one million near the end of the month. Both readings signaled higher user participation.
Ethereum’s position in real-world asset tokenization remained strong. The network held roughly 65% of the total on-chain RWA value, estimated at $19 billion, according to RWA.xyz. When layer-2 networks and other EVM-compatible chains were included, that share exceeded 70%. The network maintained its dominance in most major RWA categories.
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Stablecoin Supply Remains Concentrated on Ethereum
Ethereum also maintained its market lead in the stablecoin market. Approximately 57% of the issuance of stablecoins was on the network. Tron followed with roughly 27%. The overall largest issuer was Tether, with a circulation of about $187 billion. Over 50% of that supply was on Ethereum.
There was also a significant technical assertion at the same time. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated that the network had fixed the blockchain trilemma. In a post on X, he made the statement, the trilemma is the difficulty of decentralization, security, and scalability simultaneously.
Buterin pointed out that there are two upgrades contributing to this shift. One of them was the peer data availability sampling system called PeerDAS. It was launched with the Fusaka upgrade in December. The feature enables the nodes to check the availability of data without shifting complete datasets. It minimizes hardware load and enhances throughput.
The other one was zero-knowledge Ethereum virtual machines, or zkEVMs. These systems authenticate blocking with zero-knowledge proofs and are compatible with the existing Ethereum infrastructure.
Buterin said that zkEVM performance was production-ready, despite security tests being ongoing. According to him, the two developments are a primary component of the next technical stage of Ethereum.
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