Ethereum Reclaims DeFi Market Leadership with $480B Volume

Ethereum has regained dominance in the DeFi market, driven by automated trading bots, achieving $480 billion in stablecoin transactions on its mainnet in May 2025.

Ethereum’s market regaining highlights its enhanced infrastructure’s impact on global stablecoin transactions, influencing investor confidence and trading volume dynamics.

Observers note the significant role automated trading bots play in this recovery. Automated bots facilitated 4.84 million stablecoin transfers on Ethereum’s layer-1 since March 2025. Ethereum’s mainnet processed $11 trillion in stablecoin transactions in 2025, marking a threefold increase from previous years and increasing its global volume share to 60%.

Primary drivers of this resurgence include increased bot activity and user shifts from Layer 2 solutions back to Ethereum’s mainnet, due to recent network upgrades and reduced fees. This activity has notably affected market dynamics, boosting Ethereum’s transaction and market capitalization. Layer 2 solutions like Optimism experienced a decline, losing over $700 million in stablecoin supply, indicating a user migration back to Layer 1 networks.

The stablecoin market cap on Ethereum’s mainnet grew by 11% in 2025, and its robust infrastructure now captures a higher share of global transactions. Influential trading platforms and developers are keenly observing these elements, which suggest Ethereum’s improved capacity to handle large-scale automated transactions.

Increased transaction efficiency and scalability on Ethereum’s mainnet have reshuffled the DeFi landscape, with future technological upgrades set to solidify its market position. Historically, Ethereum lost market share to Layer 2s due to scalability challenges, but its current performance indicates long-term resilience.