Ethereum Turns 11: Revenue Falls, Value-Capture Concerns Rise

Ethereum has turned 11 years old and remains one of the most dominant public venues for stablecoins, decentralized finance (DeFi), and tokenized assets. According to DeFiLlama and RWA.xyz data, Ethereum currently hosts about $148.8 billion in stablecoins and roughly $15.5 billion in tokenized real-world assets.

Despite its success, the network is facing a harder set of challenges in its second decade. Daily mainnet revenue has fallen to $330,000, and Ethereum-based applications generated only $8.56 million in 24-hour fees at the time checked.

Vitalik Buterin, one of the co-founders of Ethereum, has acknowledged that the network must ensure ETH continues to accrue value even in an L2-heavy world. He proposed four channels for achieving this: ETH as the primary collateral and monetary asset across the network, rollups that return part of their economics to ETH, support for base rollups, and more meaningful demand for blob space.

The Ethereum Foundation has also reorganized its priorities, cutting 54 positions in June and refocusing on work only a credibly neutral foundation can perform. The new structure includes independent nonprofits such as Ethlabs and Ethereum Institutional, which may raise governance concerns about the influence of large ETH holders over the organizations shaping Ethereum's research and institutional strategy.