Ethereum: From Dominance to a Rise of Many

After Bitcoin broke its historical high in 2024, the price of Ethereum continued to decline, and doubts about it in the market grew increasingly louder. By April 2025, Ethereum even fell below 1500 dollars, and market sentiment shifted from skepticism to despair. This article will review the rise and fall of Ethereum and look ahead to its possible future.

1. The Glorious Years of Ethereum ( 2017-2022

The 2017 ICO boom drove the price of Ethereum to soar, reaching a historic high of $1430 on January 13, 2018. During this phase, Ethereum was primarily used for issuing tokens and was the only currency for participating in ICOs. Although some competitive public chains emerged, Ethereum still holds a monopoly in the smart contract market.

In 2018-2019, a large number of new public chains emerged, but Ethereum still dominated the smart contract market. Vitalik's influence in the global crypto space is second only to Satoshi Nakamoto, and the Ethereum ecosystem has gathered the most developers and innovators.

The summer of DEFI in 2020 was a highlight moment for Ethereum. Projects like Compound, Uniswap, and Yearn.Finance surged, initiating a new wave of innovation. From 2021 to 2022, hotspots such as GameFi, SocialFi, and NFTs emerged successively, leading to a prosperous Ethereum ecosystem.

On November 10, 2021, Ethereum reached an all-time high of $4,878. However, as on-chain applications continue to increase, performance bottlenecks have become the biggest obstacle to the development of Ethereum.

![With a dominant position surrounded by strong competitors, is Ethereum still viable?])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-054ff22682aa11a76ad3bda4d27a5323.webp(

2. The Expansion Path of Ethereum ) POS-Layer 2(

Ethereum's expansion mainly focuses on two directions: shifting to a POS mechanism and developing Layer 2.

The transition to POS was a direction determined by Vitalik from the beginning, believing it could improve network performance and scalability. Layer 2 has been exploring various solutions from state channels, subnets to the later Rollup schemes.

On September 15, 2022, Ethereum officially transitioned to a POS mechanism. However, there are still doubts about whether Layer2 can truly solve the scalability issue. After a large number of Layer2 solutions went live, they not only failed to bring benefits but also dispersed Ethereum's market and developers. Some native applications even started to build their own Layer2, which is almost an act of betrayal.

Looking back, abandoning POW may have been a major mistake for Ethereum. After losing miners, ETH lost its basic manufacturing cost and price support. If Layer 2 had continued to develop under POW, even if the results were not ideal, the price of ETH might not be as sluggish as it is now.

3. The Innovator's Dilemma of Ethereum

Ethereum has always been the innovator in the crypto space, while other public chains are mostly imitators. However, innovators often find themselves in a predicament.

In order to optimize performance to meet user demands, Ethereum focuses on the transition to POS and Layer 2 scaling. However, users need faster and cheaper blockchains; why not choose BSC, Tron, or Solana?

While Ethereum is busy with underlying development, more flexible competitors are rapidly innovating application models. TRON has captured the stablecoin market, BSC and BASE have formed an ecological closed loop around exchanges, and Solana has become the new darling thanks to the Meme craze.

Ethereum, as an open-source public chain, can be quickly imitated by any innovation. When it slows down application innovation and focuses on underlying development, competitors have the opportunity to overtake in the bend.

4. The Weakness of Ethereum Reflects Insufficient Industry Development

The decline of Ethereum also reflects the overall underdevelopment of the cryptocurrency industry. Apart from Bitcoin, only Memes can create wealth effects, and many VC-supported projects are being ignored. This indicates that the industry has yet to find truly valuable application scenarios.

Before finding true value, the industry may continue to cycle through the current model. If even Memes lose their appeal, the crypto market could fall into a prolonged slump.

5. Ethereum may no longer dominate in the future

Ethereum has lost its barriers in terms of technology and model; the only advantage is the accumulated funds and the mature DEFI ecosystem. RWA may be an opportunity, but the road ahead is long. Continuing to create new on-chain gameplay may be the most effective breakthrough.

But Ethereum has lost its dominant position. Competitors have formed their own barriers, and applications with high-performance demands are more inclined to choose other public chains. If Ethereum cannot maintain its innovative advantage, it may further decline under the watch of many rivals.

As a former supporter of Ethereum, I still hope it can maintain innovation and introduce more valuable applications. Continuous innovation is the only barrier for Ethereum.

![With one company dominating and strong competitors surrounding, is Ethereum still viable?])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-3c769cdce9924f10d4323c3ebf529493.webp(

Summary

Looking back at the eight-year journey of Ethereum, it represents the second major innovation in blockchain technology. From ICOs to applications like DEFI, Ethereum once led the industry's development. However, in recent years, focusing on underlying research and development has caused it to lag behind competitors in application innovation, resulting in a weak performance in this cycle.

The future of Ethereum depends on whether the entire cryptocurrency industry can find truly valuable applications. Even if it no longer dominates, the technological and paradigm innovations of the Ethereum ecosystem are still worth looking forward to. The industry needs more innovative forces like Ethereum, not just Bitcoin and Memes.