Ethereum still has 100x growth potential
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Ethereum still has 100x growth potential
A tribute to Ethereum's first decade.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Joe Zhou, Foresight News
Today marks Ethereum's tenth anniversary.
Over the past decade, Ethereum has become arguably the highest-returning asset globally.
In these ten years, NVIDIA's market cap grew 150-fold, Bitcoin's market cap increased 300-fold, while Ethereum's surged 3,600-fold to reach $450 billion. In just a decade, Ethereum has entered the top 30 global assets by market capitalization.
Over the past decade, Ethereum has become one of the world’s most secure financial systems.
During this period, trillions of dollars—reaching into the hundreds of trillions—have flowed through Ethereum. Stablecoin transaction volume alone on Ethereum reached $20 trillion annually. Beyond stablecoins, Ethereum hosts decentralized exchanges (with daily trading volumes peaking at tens of billions of dollars), staking systems (involving tens of billions of dollars), lending protocols (billions of dollars), derivatives (daily trading in the billions), NFTs, and more. Throughout all this, Ethereum’s mainnet has never experienced downtime, outages, or theft.
Looking back ten years, Ethereum’s ecosystem has already produced at least three epoch-defining products—just as Apple dominated markets with the Mac, iPhone, AirPods, and iPad, Ethereum has similarly emerged as the dominant force in its domains.
Stablecoins achieved an annual transaction volume of $28 trillion, over 70% of which occurred on Ethereum. In 2016, the world’s first DAO was born on Ethereum; today, over 90% of the largest DAOs by total value locked (TVL) reside in the Ethereum ecosystem. During DeFi Summer in 2020, Ethereum was the sole center, capturing 95–99% of market share. In 2021, when NFTs broke into the mainstream, Ethereum was the primary battleground, accounting for over 90% of annual trading volume... And tokenized equities, tokenized U.S. Treasuries, RWA, AI Agent memes are only beginning.
What about ten years from now? Ethereum is already among the top 30 global assets by market cap, surpassing Meta, TSMC, Visa, Mastercard, and other renowned companies. Is this its final destination?
No, this may just be the real starting point.
Just as Apple’s Mac computer crossing 10 million users in 1987 was not an endpoint but the beginning of everything, Ethereum—with approximately 10 million monthly users today—is officially entering its next decade.
Ethereum Still Has 100x Room to Grow
1. Even if Ethereum’s TVL grows 100-fold, it would still represent only 2% of global financial assets.
2. If Ethereum’s user base grows 100-fold, it would reach 1 billion users. Visa and Mastercard each have over 3 billion issued cards.
3. Like Apple computers in 1987, Ethereum remains a haven for niche enthusiasts. In 1987, Mac series sales surpassed 1 million units; today, as a shared global computer, Ethereum sees around 10 million monthly active users globally in 2025 (1.7 million weekly addresses).
4. Ethereum, a financial system refined over ten years, already facilitates hundreds of trillions of dollars in transactions. Stablecoin annual transaction volume on Ethereum alone reaches $20 trillion.
5. The miracle of stablecoins could be replicated across multiple "product lines" on Ethereum.
Stablecoin market cap was $1 million in 2016, reached $1 billion in 2018, and hit $100 billion in 2021—1,000x growth in two years, 100x in four years. Similar miracles could unfold with tokenized U.S. Treasuries and equities.
6. Ethereum offers alternatives to virtually every mainstream financial product. It can do what financial institutions can do—and also what they cannot.
7. Ethereum is tokenizing nearly every mainstream financial product.
Ethereum is tokenizing the U.S. dollar (via USD stablecoins)—a $40 trillion market, currently at $300 billion scale. It is tokenizing U.S. Treasuries—a $36 trillion market, currently at $7 billion. It is tokenizing U.S. equities—a $60 trillion market, still nascent at $500 million... Any of these could explode in scale within years, growing 100-fold annually like the USD stablecoin market did.
8. As a new global financial system, Ethereum still has at least 100x room for financial market expansion. Ethereum’s TVL stands at $80 billion, while global financial assets exceed $400 trillion. A 100x growth would still mean Ethereum represents only 2% of global financial assets.
9. Ethereum isn’t merely a “replacement” for the global financial system—it’s redefining what finance is. Much like email vs. postal mail. Postal services were once the dominant communication method, yet today email traffic exceeds annual postal volume daily.
10. Twenty years ago, no one believed over 90% of human information would flow through the internet; today, few believe that 9% of humanity’s capital will eventually flow through Ethereum.
Ethereum Waits for Every Breakdown of the Financial System
1. Every crisis in the global financial system is an opportunity for Ethereum.
2. Ethereum awaits every breakdown of the traditional financial system. Such breakdowns—big and small—occur monthly, yearly, cyclically.
3. Economic crises, pandemics, wars, political unrest, national bankruptcies, currency devaluations, geopolitical conflicts... Among 195 countries, each major upheaval constitutes a partial or systemic failure in the global financial architecture.
4. Over the past century, there have been at least 10 major global financial crises, 8 large-scale, globally impactful pandemics causing massive deaths, over 30 sovereign bankruptcies—including 10 cases of currency collapse and hyperinflation. In the last 50 years alone, there have been 15–20 internationally significant wars. Each event reshapes financial structures and creates new demand for Ethereum.
5. Ethereum is the center of “peripheral finance.” Around 10 countries are excluded from the mainstream financial system, with 30–50 nations marginalized. Their citizens need stable currencies, businesses require cross-border trade, middle classes want access to quality stocks.
Mainstream finance bans them; Ethereum welcomes them.
6. Duan Yongping repeatedly emphasizes: Do the right thing, and do things right. Ethereum persistently does what governments, financial institutions, and tech companies—every centralized entity—cannot. Doing decentralized things is doing the right thing.
7. Ethereum is delivering a dimension-lowering strike against SWIFT. Ethereum has become the largest value network globally outside of SWIFT. Across key dimensions—including network neutrality, 7x24 availability, transaction fees, cross-border speed, transparency, and automation of settlement—Ethereum clearly outperforms SWIFT. As major countries including the U.S. begin embracing Ethereum under compliance and regulatory frameworks, Ethereum has the potential to replace SWIFT as the world’s largest value network within 30 years.
8. Nearly 20 countries face SWIFT sanctions and restrictions. Ethereum is permissionless—any country or individual can transact freely.
9. Athens and Sparta, Android and iOS, Ethereum and the global financial system—they are two sides of the same coin. Without either, the world would be incomplete.
10. Ethereum’s success is highly probable. The traditional financial system won’t collapse suddenly, but it will continuously break down. Each breakdown benefits new financial systems, benefits Ethereum, and could become a golden opportunity for rapid expansion.
Ethereum’s Moats
1. Ethereum’s moats: First, sufficient neutrality—among blockchains, only it and Bitcoin are sufficiently decentralized and beyond control by any single nation or organization. Second, proven security—after ten years of mainnet operation and a $450 billion market cap, no major downtime, outage, or theft has ever occurred. Third, unique culture—DAO governance, early user airdrops, transparent transactions, strong emphasis on ZK technology and privacy protection... Ethereum’s ecosystem has cultivated a positive culture that breeds successful business models.
2. On July 30, 2015, the Ethereum mainnet officially launched. Over the past decade, it has never experienced a single outage, downtime, or breach.
3. Ethereum is a public good. Air can be polluted, water access restricted, land seized, roads blocked, internet accounts banned... Before Bitcoin and Ethereum, aside from a few uncontrollable natural phenomena like the sun and moon, there were no true public goods accessible equally by all. Now there are.
4. Using Ethereum requires no permission. Bitcoin is humanity’s shared currency; Ethereum is humanity’s shared supercomputer. Anyone can deploy, run, verify, and use programs on the Ethereum network—without relying on traditional servers or corporations.
5. Ethereum is a decentralized financial system, a public good, digital oil, humanity’s shared supercomputer, an immutable global ledger, the largest value network outside SWIFT, a decentralized internet, and a cyber nation.
6. Ethereum is the undisputed leader in crypto. In 2024, stablecoin annual transaction volume reached $28 trillion, with over 70% occurring on Ethereum. In 2021, during NFT’s breakout, Ethereum was the main battlefield, capturing over 90% of annual trading volume. In 2020’s DeFi Summer, Ethereum was the sole center with 95–99% market share—all major lending, trading, and stablecoin protocols operated on it.
7. Ethereum is the greatest challenger to the global financial system. It provides a financial framework where fair and secure transactions occur without regulation. When a country is cut off from the mainstream system, Ethereum is one of the best solutions. When businesses or individuals face barriers to cross-border trade or foreign stock/real estate investment, Ethereum offers a new, unregulated financial alternative.
8. Ethereum is the innovation engine of the crypto industry and the central hub for nearly all large-scale blockchain applications. In 2020’s DeFi Summer, Ethereum was the sole center with 95–99% market share—nearly all lending, trading, and stablecoin protocols ran on it. In 2021’s NFT breakout, Ethereum led with over 90% of trading volume. By 2025, stablecoins went mainstream with $28 trillion in annual volume, over 70% on Ethereum.
9. Competition ultimately comes down to time and minimizing mistakes—and Ethereum consistently makes the fewest errors.
The Ethereum mainnet has operated for ten years without major disruption. Solana launched in 2020 and suffered over 10 major outages in five years, averaging 1–3 per year with multiple network restarts. Sui launched in 2023 and faced two shutdowns in two years.
10. The AI industry cannot exist without NVIDIA; smartphones cannot exist without Apple; crypto cannot exist without Ethereum.
Surpassing BTC Is Not Impossible
1. Bitcoin is only a monetary system. Ethereum is not only a monetary system but also a financial system, an internet system, and a shared supercomputer for all of humanity.
2. Those who believe Ethereum will surpass Bitcoin in value have never disappeared. Entrepreneurs like Mark Cuban (2021), Real Vision CEO Raoul (2023), and 1confirmation founder Nick Tomaino (May 2025) have publicly and clearly expressed this view at different times.
3. Cathie Wood is considered one of the most bullish public figures on Ethereum’s future. She predicts Ethereum could reach $166,000 by 2032, with a market cap of $20 trillion. With Ethereum currently at $440 billion, this implies Cathie Wood sees nearly 50x upside potential.
4. Ethereum is as scarce as Bitcoin. Ethereum’s current inflation rate is lower than BTC, gold, the U.S. dollar, and the euro.
In 2024, Ethereum’s inflation rate was -0.2% to 0.5%, compared to BTC’s 1.7% (will drop to 0.85% after the 2028 halving, halving every four years), gold’s 1.5% (annual supply growth ~1.5%-2%), the euro’s 2.5%, and the U.S. dollar’s 3.3%.
Some currencies have absurdly high inflation: Egyptian pound 28%, Iranian rial 31%, Turkish lira 58%, Argentine peso 250%, Zimbabwean dollar 560%.
5. At the end of Bitcoin’s first decade, its price was $3,500. At the end of Ethereum’s first decade, it reached $3,800.
Bitcoin’s market cap was $62 billion after ten years; Ethereum’s reached $460 billion after ten years.
6. Ethereum once came close to Flippening Bitcoin in market cap. In mid-2017, Ethereum briefly reached 80% of Bitcoin’s market cap; in May 2021, it briefly hit 48%. Currently, Ethereum stands at 20% of Bitcoin’s market cap.
7. Crypto could still exist without Bitcoin—but without Ethereum, crypto would lose its reason to exist.
8. From August 2015 to January 2016, Ethereum traded below $0.30. Today it’s worth $3,900—an increase of over 13,000x. During the same period, Bitcoin rose hundreds of times.
9. Ethereum has activated two engines for price growth: U.S.-listed spot Ethereum ETFs and strategic institutional reserves. A third engine—the ability to stake ETH within spot ETFs—is expected to launch around October this year. Once live, stakers will earn an additional ~3% annual yield.
10. In the next decade, when Ethereum becomes as ubiquitous as the internet, its user base will grow 100-fold, and funds on Ethereum (TVL) will grow 100-fold.
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