Ethereum has marked its 11th anniversary since launch, but its price remains more than 60% below its all-time high. In contrast, it is overwhelmingly outperforming competing blockchains in the stablecoin and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization markets, showing a clear divergence between price and network utilization.

Price Slump vs. Network Expansion

According to a report by CoinReader, citing crypto media outlet Cryptopotato, ETH was trading at around $1,920 at the time of Ethereum's 11th anniversary of its genesis block creation. The decline over the past year was approximately 49%, and it was about 61% lower compared to its all-time high of $4,946 recorded in August 2025. At that time, its market capitalization was approximately $231 billion, with a circulating supply of about 120.7 million ETH.

In contrast to the sluggish price, the network's processing capacity has expanded. According to the CoinReader report, Ethereum's gas limit increased to 60 million, roughly doubling compared to two years ago. The number of transactions per block was about 229, and the base layer processing speed stood at approximately 21 transactions per second. The base fee was around 5.3 Gwei, with the cost of a simple ETH transfer calculated at about $0.20.

Layer 2 (L2) scaling networks have also established themselves as the center of transaction processing. CoinReader reported that rollups processed approximately 95% of all transactions. However, this ratio may vary depending on the time of the survey and the scope of aggregation, so it is appropriate to interpret this as a trend of significantly increased reliance on L2 rather than a fixed proportion.

Dominance in Stablecoin and RWA Tokenization Markets

Ethereum's competitiveness is more concretely demonstrated by how much financial assets are actually utilized on the network, rather than just its price.

According to a report for government and institutional audiences released by the Ethereum Foundation in July, the size of Ethereum-based stablecoins was approximately $159 billion as of March 2026. By the same metric, Solana was about $15 billion and BNB Chain about $14 billion, meaning Ethereum is roughly 5.5 times larger than the two competing chains combined.

Ethereum also held a high proportion in the real-world asset tokenization market. According to an institutional information page operated by the Ethereum Foundation, the size of Ethereum mainnet stablecoins was recently reported at approximately $157 billion, and L2 stablecoins at about $11.9 billion. The size of Ethereum-based real-world asset tokenization was calculated at approximately $17.2 billion. The data explains that Ethereum and L2 account for over 75% of the world's tokenized real-world assets and more than 60% of the stablecoin supply.

Stablecoins are digital assets pegged to the value of fiat currencies, such as the US dollar, used for payments, remittances, and exchange settlements. Real-world asset tokenization is a structure that represents rights to real assets—such as government bonds, funds, stocks, real estate, and gold—as tokens on a blockchain. Ethereum maintaining a high share in these sectors means the network is being utilized as a foundation for issuing financial products and facilitating payments and settlements, going beyond a simple virtual asset trading network.

Institutional Products Evolve Around Staking

Institutional Ethereum products are also evolving, centering on staking functionality. CoinReader reported that BlackRock's Ethereum product holds spot ETH while staking a portion of the volume. It also noted that institutional products expanding to stake their held ETH and distribute rewards to investors.

The structure of staking products is also confirmed in documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to SEC filings, the iShares Staking Ethereum Trust ETF decided on its first cash distribution of staking rewards in June, with the total distribution amount to be paid to shareholders at that time being approximately $351,670. Another SEC registration document stated that a specific Ethereum trust aims to stake approximately 50-80% of its held ETH under normal conditions.

However, this ratio is not a condition applied equally to all Ethereum ETFs and varies depending on the liquidity management and redemption structure of each product. Therefore, when describing institutional products, the management company, product name, staking proportion, and reward distribution method must be distinguished. Combining the fees and staking conditions of different products and explaining them as if they were the structure of a single product can distort information.

Future Schedule: Glamsterdam and Hegotha Upgrades

Technological upgrades are also a core factor that will determine Ethereum's competitiveness. According to Ethereum's official roadmap, the Glamsterdam upgrade is scheduled for the second half of 2026. Glamsterdam focuses on restructuring block creation and validation roles and introducing block-level access lists to improve parallel processing and data management efficiency. The subsequent upgrade, Hegotha, is also listed on the development schedule for the second half of 2026.

However, Ethereum's development schedule and included features may change based on research and developer discussions, so it should not be taken as a fixed implementation date.

Need for Balanced Assessment

The core issue surrounding Ethereum is not about choosing to evaluate only one aspect between price weakness and network growth. The approximately 61% drop from its all-time high illustrates losses for ETH investors and weak market demand. On the other hand, the expansion of stablecoins, real-world asset tokenization, and institutional staking products demonstrates that the scope of Ethereum's utilization as a financial infrastructure is widening.

What needs to be confirmed going forward is how much the increase in network utilization connects to the demand and value of ETH itself. Even if transactions increase on L2, if the fees and data usage charges returning to the base layer decrease, network growth and ETH value may move independently. Conversely, if stablecoins and tokenized assets continue to accumulate within the Ethereum ecosystem and staking in institutional products expands, ETH is more likely to be evaluated as a collateral and security asset for financial infrastructure rather than a simple virtual asset for trading.

Ethereum's report card on its 11th anniversary appears sluggish when looking solely at its price. However, considering the scale of stablecoins, real-world assets, and institutional products running on top of the network, Ethereum's influence cannot be explained by its price decline alone.

[This article is a reference material for making virtual asset investment decisions and does not recommend the purchase or sale of any specific virtual asset. Virtual assets are subject to high price volatility, and you may lose all or part of your investment principal. This article was written with AI assistance.]