Q4 2025 has an interesting phenomenon—the on-chain transfer volume of Ethereum has surged to $8 trillion. How exaggerated is this figure? It's nearly ten times Switzerland's entire annual GDP.

But here's the problem. Daily active addresses have surpassed 10 million, and the number of transactions has doubled compared to Q2, but what about the token price? It’s still stagnant. It’s like having stellar performance but not seeing the stock price move up—that’s frustrating.

**Why is this happening? Actually, it’s a "Infrastructure Paradox."**

Imagine Ethereum as Manhattan’s prime real estate. A few years ago, network congestion and exorbitant fees forced everyone to move to layer 2 solutions or other chains. But now, things are different—the roads are widened, systems optimized, transaction throughput has greatly improved, and Gas fees have plummeted. Theoretically, this should be a good thing.

But reality is harsh. Ethereum is now caught in a "low margin, high volume" dilemma. On-chain efficiency has increased a hundredfold, but network fees have decreased a thousandfold. The result is transaction volume exploding while revenue shrinks. This growth without proportional income suppresses the upward potential of the token price.

**So why are big players (institutions) still confidently betting on Ethereum?**

Simply put, in the eyes of financial giants, "consensus" is the most solid rule. No matter how fast or cheap other chains are, if they haven’t undergone extreme stress tests involving hundreds of billions of dollars, institutions won’t feel secure investing real money. Take RWA (Real World Asset) on-chain—65% of global assets are running on Ethereum. Giants like BlackRock and Franklin Templeton aren’t fools—they know that in the face of trillions of dollars, speed is just a bonus; security and consensus are the key factors.

The data is clear: December daily active addresses exceeded 10 million, with 2.23 million transactions per day. Infrastructure is already in place, and application explosion is only a matter of time. From my perspective, this is the most severe disconnect between "price" and "value" right now.

But on the other hand, if you’re still relying on it to make you overnight riches, you might have chosen the wrong track. The real opportunity lies in positioning for the financial settlement rights of the next decade—Ethereum remains irreplaceable in that regard.