This long-term technical progress is being mirrored in real-world adoption, as stablecoin transfer volume on Ethereum surged past $8 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2025, alongside record transaction counts and active addresses. Together, the data suggests Ethereum is evolving from a primarily speculative platform into a global settlement layer for payments, stablecoins, and tokenized real-world assets.

Vitalik Buterin says Ethereum has effectively crossed a historic threshold by solving what has long been considered one of the most difficult problems in blockchain design: the blockchain trilemma. In a post that was shared on X over the weekend, the Ethereum co-founder argued that recent and upcoming upgrades mean Ethereum can now simultaneously support decentralization, security, and scalability in a way that is no longer theoretical, but already partially live in production.

According to Buterin, two major technical developments are at the heart of this shift: peer data availability sampling, known as PeerDAS, and zero-knowledge Ethereum virtual machines, or ZK-EVMs. Together, he said, these technologies are transforming Ethereum into “a fundamentally new and more powerful kind of decentralized network.” 

PeerDAS was introduced as part of the Fusaka upgrade in December, and it allows Ethereum to handle vastly larger amounts of data by enabling nodes to verify data availability without needing to download all of it. This approach dramatically improves scalability while preserving decentralization, and Buterin explained that this component of the vision is already live on Ethereum mainnet.

ZK-EVMs are the second half of the equation. These systems allow Ethereum blocks and transactions to be validated using zero-knowledge proofs while staying compatible with the existing Ethereum virtual machine. While ZK-EVMs have been in development for several years and are now considered performance-ready, Buterin pointed out that they are still in an “alpha stage” from a security standpoint. Hardening and testing are required before they can be relied upon as the primary validation mechanism for the network. He shared a roughly four-year roadmap during which ZK-EVMs will gradually take on a larger role in Ethereum’s core infrastructure.

Buterin described a phased rollout beginning in 2026, when Ethereum is expected to see gas limit increases driven by changes like balance adjustments and execution-layer upgrades. 2026 could also mark the first real opportunity for users to run ZK-EVM-based nodes. Between 2026 and 2028, Ethereum developers plan to introduce gas repricing, changes to state structure, and adjustments that make higher throughput safer. By the late 2020s, Buterin expects ZK-EVMs to become the dominant way blocks are validated, unlocking much larger gas limits and sustained scalability gains.

Buterin said it has taken roughly a decade of focused development to reach what he now sees as a resolution of the trilemma. He traced the origins of this work back to his early writings on data availability in 2017, and described the effort as a ten-year journey that is only now bearing fruit. 

Ethereum is seeing success in other areas as well. Stablecoin transfer volume on Ethereum surged to a new all-time high in the fourth quarter of 2025 after surpassing $8 trillion, according to data released by Token Terminal. 

The milestone is almost double the transfer volume that was recorded in the second quarter, which stood just above $4 trillion. Analysts say the surge proves that there is a shift away from speculative on-chain activity toward real-world usage, particularly in payments, remittances, and treasury flows.

Stablecoin issuance on Ethereum also expanded quite a bit over the course of 2025. According to figures from Blockworks, total issuance rose by approximately 43% during the year, increasing from $127 billion to $181 billion by December. An analyst posting under the name “BMNR Bullz” on X said the growth reflects global payments already happening on-chain, even before deeper integrations with traditional financial infrastructure, like SWIFT-style messaging systems, institutional settlement rails, and large-scale real-world asset tokenization.

The jump in stablecoin activity coincided with record levels of network usage. Data from Etherscan shows that Ethereum daily transactions peaked at around 2.23 million in late December, which was an increase of roughly 48% compared with the same period a year earlier. At the same time, Token Terminal reported that monthly active addresses on Ethereum reached an all-time high of 10.4 million in December, while the number of unique daily active addresses acting as senders or receivers climbed above one million.

Ethereum monthly active addresses (Source: Token Terminal)

Ethereum also dominates the real-world asset tokenization market. According to data from RWA.xyz, the network accounts for roughly 65% of total on-chain RWA value, equivalent to about $19 billion. When Ethereum layer-2 networks and other EVM-compatible chains are included, that share rises to more than 70%.