Ethereum had over $64B in total inflows and $4.2B in net inflows for 2025

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Ethereum’s Chain Invited the Largest Net Inflows in 2025

Ethereum became a hub for high-value DeFi liquidity, with large capital returns flowing from other L2 chains back to the main layer.

Despite the growth of DeFi activity on alternative chains, the Ethereum ecosystem attracted the biggest share of liquidity onto its L1 network. The Ethereum network reached $4.2B in net flows for 2025, despite short-term shifts of liquidity to other chains. In the long term, Ethereum has served as a central hub for bridging activities.

The biggest outflows were from Arbitrum, which lost some of its liquidity as DeFi shifted to the main network. Ethereum kept adding liquidity, with $195M inflows in the past week.

Hyperliquid had the second-biggest net inflows, retaining an additional $2B in 2025. Throughout the past year, ecosystem flows shifted multiple times, showing traders were seeking venues with more active trading and liquidity rather than committing to a specific chain.

Ethereum Leads in General Ecosystem Flows

Ethereum activity reached over $64B in inflows and around $60B in outflows for the past year, taking the top spot in overall liquidity flows. The main reason for Ethereum’s dominance is the available bridges, which connect other chains to Ethereum.

The usage of stablecoins also positioned Ethereum as a key hub for settlements. While stablecoins can be bridged to other networks for trading, Ethereum-based versions are the most liquid. Some users bridge their assets to Ethereum in the final stretch, as ERC-20 tokens are widely represented on exchanges and DeFi protocols.

One significant shift in on-chain liquidity happened around the October 10 liquidation event. From October 12 onward, the share of L2 chains diminished, as liquidity returned to Ethereum. The riskier protocols on L2 chains were quickly abandoned, leading to added inflows on Ethereum.

As of December 29, L2 chains account for 13.5% of the Ethereum ecosystem economy, with the main net carrying the bulk of applications.

Ethereum became more usable as gas fees returned to record lows. L2 networks still carry the biggest number of transactions, over 93% of on-chain activity in the ecosystem. However, the L1 chain carries the biggest share of liquidity.

L2 chains held only 8.8% of the total stablecoin supply, peaking at $18B. In the past month, L2 chains lost $1B in stablecoin liquidity as the market contracted.

ETH Faces Net Loss Challenge in 2025

The main challenge for Ethereum adoption has been ETH volatility. Until December 29, ETH had a net loss of 12.1%, after wiping out over 29% in the last quarter.

ETH traded at $2,930, though briefly recovering above $3,000. ETH ranged between a yearly high of $4,948 and a low of around $1,400. Over the past year, ETH has attracted whale buying and increased DeFi lending activity. However, it failed to fulfill expectations for a sustained rally to higher price ranges.