### Ethereum (ETH) 2025 Performance Analysis and Future Outlook

#### 1. Overview of Key Changes in ETH for 2025
1. Price Surge: Beginning of the year $1,823 → August surpasses $4,210 (year-to-date high $4,358), an increase of over 130%, with daily trading volume between $4.5-4.9 billion.
2. Technical Upgrade:
- The Fusaka hard fork (expected to launch in Q4 2025) will enhance L2 scalability, reduce Gas fees further, and increase DeFi TVL from $50 billion to $120 billion.
- Layer2 dominance (such as Arbitrum) handles 70% of transactions, with a surge in ecosystem activity.
3. Institutional Entry:
- The cumulative inflow of ETH spot ETFs has exceeded $10 billion, with corporate holdings surging by 127% (e.g., SharpLink Gaming purchased 438,000 ETH).
- Intensified deflation: EIP-1559 burned 5.3 million ETH, with a staking ratio of 30% (approximately 36 million ETH locked).

#### 2. Core Driving Factors of Soaring
Intrinsic Motivation:
- The technical upgrade (Fusaka, zkEVM mainnet integration) improves efficiency and reduces Gas fees.
- Deflationary model: Annual destruction rate of 1.5%, with new supply being only 10% of the PoW era.

External Catalysis:
- Favorable Policies: The U.S. 401(k) plan allows for cryptocurrency investments, and the SEC has clearly stated that staking tokens are not securities.
- Institutional accumulation: BlackRock's expected approval of the staking ETF is analogous to the effect of Grayscale's BTC trust.
- Market sentiment: BTC breaking $120,000 drives the Altcoin season, and the ETH/BTC exchange rate strengthens.

#### 3. Future Trend Prediction
- Short-term (by the end of 2025): If Fusaka launches smoothly, the target is $6,000-$7,000, but we must be wary of regulatory fluctuations.
- Mid-term (2026-2030):
- Technological Catalysis: zkEVM mainnet deployment, RISC-V architecture upgrade could push ETH to $10,000+.
- Ecological Expansion: RWA (Real World Assets) on-chain could bring a $16 trillion market opportunity.
- Risk Warning: Competition from Solana and other factors, along with macroeconomic downturns, may suppress price increases, but ETH, as the "DeFi/NFT infrastructure," still has long-term advantages.

Summary: The explosion of ETH in 2025 is the result of a triple resonance of "technical upgrades + institutional funds + deflationary mechanism." The future remains bullish, but attention must be paid to the implementation of upgrades and policy trends.

(Data compiled from Gate.io Square, Matrixport, etc., opinions are for reference only)