March 30, 2025 Welcome back to our blog, where we assist traders and investors in navigating the crypto world and guide them toward mastering the volatile crypto markets with the power of automated trading.
In one of our earlier blog posts from 2024, we discussed the rise in Bitcoin’s dominance and some of its driving forces. In today’s post, we will continue our assessment by looking closely at the most significant project trailing behind Bitcoin: Ethereum.
While underperforming compared to Bitcoin and other major altcoins in 2024 and 2025 (so far), we’ll examine what’s going on with the Ethereum blockchain and how it affects the rest of the crypto world. From its most recent developments to its challenges and future roadmap, you should better understand Ethereum’s short—and long-term potential by the end of this blog post.
Before we delve into the ether, please remember that all the information we share in this blog post is purely educational and should not be considered financial advice or a call to action. The world of crypto trading is dynamic and complex and involves inherited perils. Crypto traders are advised to consider their economic status, risk tolerance, and research before employing any crypto trading strategy.
While we’re sure you are familiar with the second-largest project in the crypto world, let’s give a short overview of the Ethereum blockchain so we’re all on the same page.
About six months after celebrating its 10th anniversary, Ethereum reigned supreme as one of the biggest success stories of the last decade (even compared to stories outside the crypto world), rewarding early investors with an ROI of about 7,840%.
After the launch of Bitcoin disrupted the world of finance by introducing blockchain technology as a viable and decentralized alternative to government-owned fiat currencies, the second wave of the crypto revolution came with Ethereum.
Ethereum was the first actual template of the true potential of blockchain technology, introducing much of the foundation to the crypto world as we know it today, including smart contracts, Web3, Defi protocols, NFTs, and much more. Thanks to these attributes, ETH is often called the silver of the digital world, being second only to BTC’s status as digital gold. Becoming the second crypto after BTC to have its ETFs approved by regulators only further enhances ETH’s position as the most critical crypto after Bitcoin. That said, there is a reason why we chose to talk about Ethereum today.
From serious expectations to overthrow BTC as the number one crypto, ETH is more focused on keeping its place as the number two crypto at the moment. Struggling to enjoy the bullish momentum of the crypto world in the last couple of years, ETH is lagging behind many of its competitors. And, as we said in the intro, data supports this claim.
While ETH didn’t have a bad 2024 per se, adding up about 44% to its value, it pales compared to the rest of the crypto world, like the 129% surge of BTC over the same period. Other metrics, like total value locked (TVL) and other on-chain data, also showed worrying signs of decline during that time. ETH dominance is standing slightly shy of 10% and far behind its 2021 highs.
With Ethereum still having undeniable potential on the one hand and other cryptos showing more substantial growth and more appealing narratives on the other, now is the time to understand what’s going on with ETH and how we, as traders, can exploit it to our benefit.
While Ethereum is likely too big to fail and will lose its position as the second preference in cryptos, some specific challenges raise concerns about its potential growth and ability to outperform Bitcoin and other altcoins.
First, some of Ethereum’s recent upgrades didn’t deliver the expected outcomes.
This starts with the 2022 system upgrade called “The Merge,” which switched the consensus mechanism of the blockchain from Proof of Work (PoW), like Bitcoin, to Proof of Stake (PoS), similar to the rest of the altcoin world. While this upgrade went smoothly, making the ecosystem more scalable and energy efficient, it has also made Ethereum less decentralized. In hindsight, many experts argue this upgrade had more downsides than upsides, pointing out that this was when ETH began to be outshined by other cryptos.
Following that is the “Dencun Upgrade” from last year. This system upgrade aimed to improve the ecosystem’s efficiency and reduce transaction fees on its L2s. Surprisingly, while achieving these goals, it also resulted in Ethereum’s revenues plummeting by almost 99% shortly after, which, as you may suspect, negatively affected the entire ecosystem.
With all these internal issues, Ethereum also started facing increasing competition from other alternatives within the crypto space. These layer one (L1) blockchain projects, like Solana, Tron, Avalanche, Cardano, and more, are trying to offer newer, cheaper, and faster ecosystems to Ethereum.
As Ethereum currently only processes about 13 transactions per second (TPS), other L1 networks that can support hundreds, if not thousands, of TPS attract developers and investors who could have otherwise chosen ETH.
If we look on the bright side, Ethereum is still a prime mover in the crypto world and, as such, has a lot going for it.
As of today, Ethereum is the only crypto except Bitcoin that got approved for ETFs, allowing it to attract funds from deep-pocketed institutional investors. Equipped with this new tool for attracting inflows that has shown its potential more than once since its launch, ETH enjoys a unique position in the crypto world, making it one of the likely winners of the next bull run.
Considering that and a growing number of reports speculating that the U.S. plans to build a national reserve of cryptos, ETH, after BTC, is likely to be a crucial part of this reservoir and enjoy this exciting development firsthand.
In addition, Ethereum is still managed by some of the best programmers and developers in the crypto world. Recently, it showed real signs of improvement in its internal issues and ability to compete with its competitors’ technology.
When it comes to TPS, Ethereum, as a very well-managed crypto project, has a clear plan to improve its scalability issues further, naming a goal of reaching 100,000 TPS between its mainnet and its L2s shortly.
As of now, Ethereum has successfully reduced its gas fees to their lowest point over the past four years, making it cheaper for developers and other participants and hopefully attracting new business to its ecosystem.
Overall, Vitalik Buterin and the other people in charge of Ethereum seem entirely aware of the struggles ETH is facing and have the knowledge and expertise to address these issues. Only time will tell if they’ll be successful.
It’s hard to say what the future holds for the Ethereum ecosystem and its native token, ETH. Ethereum seems to be trying to find its place between two worlds.
Hovering above Ethereum is Bitcoin, offering a more decentralized store-of-value solution that is more appealing to crypto retailers and institutional investors outside the crypto world.
Other layer-1 blockchains that offer faster and cheaper options for participants are not far behind Ethereum. With more players in the crypto world choosing to follow this trend and opting for younger and more user-friendly networks, ETH is slowly losing the edge that elevated it to its current status.
ETH is not established enough like Bitcoin, on the one hand, but perhaps too established, so it’s starting to be obsolete on the other. ETH must find a new narrative, re-invent itself, and recover its dominance in the crypto world.
On the one hand, Ethereum has shown us its ability to make tough decisions and execute complex upgrades more than once. Being well-funded and backed by a great development team with a clear roadmap, Ethereum can reposition itself and solidify its status as the second-largest crypto.
On the other hand, Ethereum’s future isn’t solely dependent on its ecosystem. Many factors can hinder ETH’s performances, from macro events that affect volatility to the rise of Bitcoin L2s and its L1 competitors, which are also working at full speed and continuing to evolve.
With both scenarios, including any combination of, being a reasonable outcome, it’s up to you to research, explore other data like tokenomics and on-chain data, and decide for yourself whether or not ETH is in line with your risk tolerance as a long-term investment.
With the markets still trying to decide where Ethereum is heading, ETH shows increased volatility. This volatility, combined with ETH’s high liquidity, makes it a great potential candidate for some automated trading tools like grid bots specifically designed to exploit these exact conditions. Instead of predicting long-term forecasts, traders might be better off focusing on short-term plays that capitalize on a high-volatility trading environment.
As we suggested in our 2024 summary, the future of Ethereum is expected to be one of the most intriguing unfolding events in the crypto world during the next few years.
While this uncertainty poses both risk and opportunity, the beauty of crypto bots is that they allow traders to cash in when the market is indecisive, all in an efficient way and without any unnecessary risks.
At Cornix, we offer crypto traders an all-in-one trading solution that covers everything they need to trade ETH and other cryptos. This allows them to exploit volatility to generate consistent profits.
Our comprehensive packages include Signals Bots, DCA Bots, TradingView Bots, and Grid Bots. These are accompanied by other advanced trading tools and features, such as demo trading, backtesting, portfolio trackers, trading terminals, and much more.
If all that sounds too good, why not try it out for yourself instead of taking our word for it? Sign up today for our two-week free trial and experience firsthand how we can help you elevate your crypto trading.
