Ethereum advanced from an experimental network to a core global infrastructure in 2025, serving institutions, developers, and AI ecosystems. The year featured two notable forks: Pectra (May) advancing account abstraction and security features, and Fusaka (December) boosting efficiency with PeerDAS. Gas capacity rose thrice without a hard fork.

Regulatory and institutional momentum accompanied the tech progress. The U.S. SEC issued staking-compliance guidance, with leadership affirming Ethereum is not a security. The GENIUS Act advanced federal stablecoin regulation. Sanctions on Tornado Cash were lifted, privacy contracts gained judicial support, and privacy shifted toward foundational capability.

Layer 2 matured with Base, Arbitrum, and zkSync delivering sub-mei-tier fees, lifting L2 TVL to about $357B while often eclipsing mainnet activity. DeFi TVL reached $939B (+71%). Uniswap traded over $1T annually, and Aave borrowing neared $250B. ERC-8004 and x402 anchored Ethereum as an AI-ready settlement layer.