Ethereum News Today: Ethereum Sees 7% Layer-2 Throughput Gain, 39% Fee Drop, $1.7B ETF Inflows

Written byCoin World
Friday, Jul 18, 2025 5:41 pm ET2min read
Aime RobotAime Summary

- Ethereum's Q2 saw $1.7B ETF inflows, rising institutional interest, and 7% layer-2 throughput growth amid 39% fee declines.

- Network efficiency gains boosted TVL to $63.2B, with 90% of ETH now held profitably, signaling stronger user retention and developer adoption.

- Derivatives markets surged 56% in turnover, with $14.5B open interest, reflecting deepened liquidity and hedging demand across regulated venues.

- Staked ETH rose alongside controlled profit-taking (8% liquid coins), while on-chain analytics showed 40M→10M coins below cost, reinforcing bullish sentiment.

Ethereum (ETH) demonstrated notable improvements in the second quarter, with significant increases in exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows, layer-2 activity, and liquidity, all of which bolster the outlook for the third quarter. According to the “Charting Crypto Q3 2025” report, US-traded spot Ethereum ETFs captured $1.7 billion in net inflows last quarter, reversing the prior period’s outflows. This shift in institutional flows indicates a growing interest and confidence in Ethereum among large investors.

Layer-2 throughput climbed 7%, while average user fees dropped 39%. This reduction in fees was accompanied by an 8% increase in liquid supply, and long-dormant balances shrank 6%. These developments suggest that Ethereum’s network is becoming more efficient and cost-effective, which is crucial for attracting more users and developers. As a result, the share of ETH held at a profit increased from under 40% to nearly 90%, and the total value locked on Ethereum reached $63.2 billion. This indicates that more investors are holding ETH with the expectation of future gains, which is a positive sign for the network’s health and growth.

The improvements are also evident in the derivatives market, where daily perpetual futures turnover averaged $51.4 billion, up 56% quarter-over-quarter. Aggregate inflows erased a first-quarter $200 million leak and restored momentum for managers positioning ETH as the market’s second large-cap crypto. Futures open interest totaled $14.5 billion on June 30 despite a 6.9% quarterly pullback, highlighting deeper liquidity across regulated venues. Meanwhile, options open interest stood at $5.3 billion, with derivatives desks also logging an 11% uptick in term-futures volume, signaling growing hedging appetite.

Developers and users benefited from a 39% decline in base layer fees as rollups absorbed more transactions, sharpening the economics of on-chain application deployment. At the same time, Ethereum’s inflation rate remained modest, at approximately 0.75% annualized. This cushioned long-term supply pressure. Staked ETH continued to climb, and the report plotted both total staked value and the associated annual yield among its core fundamentals tables. On-chain analytics show that holders used the second-quarter price recovery to reposition. Liquid coins, defined as those moved within 90 days, rose 8%, whereas coins untouched for more than a year fell 6%. This indicated controlled profit-taking rather than wholesale distribution. ETH’s Net Unrealized Profit/Loss flipped from capitulation to optimism between the first and second quarters, aligning with market-cycle models that track investor sentiment shifts. The pool of coins sitting below cost plummeted from more than 40 million to fewer than 10 million over the same period.

Ethereum’s $63 billion total value locked (TVL) in the DeFi ecosystem is spread across lending, decentralized exchanges, and yield farming protocols. Ether also expanded its slice of total crypto market capitalization alongside Bitcoin and Solana as investors rotated toward perceived blue-chip assets. Perpetual swap funding rates, tracked alongside Bitcoin and Solana, remained neutral to positive through late June, suggesting balanced speculative positioning rather than froth. However, the report cautioned that sustained ETF inflows and favorable fee conditions must persist to maintain the second-quarter constructive backdrop. Nevertheless, it noted that Ethereum now enters the third quarter with stronger institutional sponsorship, lower transaction costs, and a healthier on-chain profit profile.

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