The Ethereum 2.0 concept, which originated in the early days of the network, has evolved into a comprehensive technical roadmap that addresses the blockchain "triangle": security, decentralization, and scalability. The most pivotal stage in this process is "The Merge", which took place in September 2022, marking the combination of Ethereum's initial execution layer with the Beacon Chain consensus layer. This event fundamentally changed the network's operating mechanism from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS), completely eliminating the need for energy-intensive mining operations and reducing the network's power consumption by more than 99.9%.
The transition to PoS is not only an effort to protect the environment, but also the foundation for Ethereum's new economic structure. In the PoW mechanism, the security of the network depends on computing power and electricity costs, creating constant selling pressure from miners to cover operating costs. With PoS, security is maintained by "stakers" who lock up their ETH to participate in the transaction validation process. According to analysis from Tan Phat Digital, this mechanism allows Ethereum to reduce the rate of new ETH issuance significantly, as the rewards for validators are much lower than the costs needed to maintain previous PoW mining rigs.
By the end of 2025, Ethereum is no longer simply called "Ethereum 2.0" but is understood as a modular ecosystem implementing a multi-phase roadmap. This roadmap includes key milestones to transform Ethereum into a global payments layer capable of processing hundreds of thousands of transactions per second through Layer 2 (L2) solutions. The impact of these changes on the value of ETH is profound, creating scarcity through asset lock-in and boosting network utility through performance upgrades.
Modular Development Roadmap and How Upgrade Phases Work
Following the success of The Merge, Ethereum's roadmap is divided into five parallel phases: The Surge, The Scourge, The Verge, The Purge and The Splurge. Each phase focuses on a specific aspect of protocol optimization:
The Surge: Focuses on increasing scalability through technologies such as Sharding, Danksharding and Rollups, with the goal of reaching over 100,000 transactions per second (TPS) across the system.
The Scourge: Ensures neutrality and decentralization by reducing minimize the impact of MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) and use Inclusion Lists for censorship resistance.
The Verge: Simplify authentication using Verkle Trees and SNARK-based authenticators, allowing users to run nodes on minimal hardware devices.
The Purge: Reduce technical debt and data storage burden through EIP-4444, which eliminates legacy historical data and reduces hardware requirements for node operators.
The Splurge: Improves remaining features such as Account Abstraction and EVM virtual machine enhancements to optimize user experience.
“The Surge” phase is the top priority during the phase 2024-2025, focusing on making Ethereum a "Rollup-centric" platform. Instead of trying to process every transaction on the main network, Ethereum provides cheaper data space to Layer 2 networks like Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base. This reduces costs for end users while maintaining the security of the Ethereum mainnet.
"The Verge" and "The Purge" aim for the long-term goal of network sustainability. By introducing Verkle Trees, Ethereum will significantly reduce the size of the proofs needed to validate a block, allowing nodes to participate without storing the entire state history. At the same time, removing unnecessary historical data will make node operations easier for individuals, strengthening the decentralization of the network.
The Impact of EIP-4844 and the Layer 2 Transaction Fee Revolution
One of the most important milestones of The Surge period is the Dencun upgrade, deployed in March 2024, introducing the proposal EIP-4844 (Proto-Danksharding). EIP-4844 changed the way Layer 2s interact with the Ethereum mainnet by introducing a new data structure called "blobs".
Before EIP-4844, Rollup solutions had to store transaction data in the "calldata" portion of Ethereum transactions, which was expensive because the data was stored permanently across all nodes. Blobs provides an alternative where data is only temporarily stored on the Beacon Chain for approximately 18 days before being automatically deleted. The economic impact of this change is immense as transaction fees on Layer 2 networks have decreased by 10 to 100 times. The cost of performing a token swap on the Base or Optimism network has dropped from a few dollars to near zero at various times.
However, Ethereum's fee revenue is also down about 44% year-over-year as L2s pay fewer fees to the main network. This shift shows that Ethereum is evolving from a network that sells expensive block space to a high-volume payments layer with a much larger overall scale.
In-Depth Analysis of the Pectra Upgrade (May 2025)
The Pectra upgrade, activating in May 2025, is the largest upgrade since The Merge. The biggest technical highlight is EIP-7251, which increases the maximum stake limit from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH per validator, helping large staking organizations consolidate their validators and reduce network bandwidth.
In terms of user experience, Pectra introduced EIP-7702, which allows regular wallet addresses to temporarily act as smart contract wallets. This provides benefits such as:
Gasless transactions thanks to app sponsorship.
Batch transactions to reduce risk and complexity.
Advanced security with trusted account recovery methods.
Tan Phat Digital notes that the increase in blob capacity in this upgrade has resulted in a decrease in blob fees. to extremely low levels, slowing ETH deflation in the short term but fueling the explosion of decentralized applications.
Fusaka Upgrade (December 2025): PeerDAS And Vision Of 100,000 TPS
Fusaka Upgrade In Late 2025 Focuses On Optimizing The Data Availability Layer Through PeerDAS Technology (EIP-7594). Here are key comparisons of network performance:
Node Requirements: Before PeerDAS, nodes had to download the entire Blobs data; After the upgrade, the node only needs to check small random samples.
Node Bandwidth: Reduced bandwidth requirements by about 85%, allowing ordinary personal computers to still participate in node operations.
Number of Blobs: Increased from 6 blobs per block to a target of 50-64 blobs, significantly expanding the storage space for Layer 2.
Scalability:Increase Layer 2 throughput from 12,000 TPS to over 100,000 TPS, and increase mainnet TPS to 40-60 TPS by increasing gas limit to 150 million units.
Ethereum Economics and Staking Market
Business model Ethereum's economy in 2025 moves into a state of "dynamic balance". As of December 2025, the total supply of ETH reached approximately 120.7 million tokens. Although there is a slight daily inflation trend due to reduced burning fees, the liquidity depth on exchanges reached a record low due to a large amount of ETH being staked.
The situation of the staking market at the end of 2025 shows impressive numbers:
Total ETH staked: Reached about 35.6 - 36.8 million ETH, accounting for more than 30% of the total circulation supply.
Number of Validators: Exceeds 1.07 million, ensuring extremely high decentralization for the network.
Staking yield (APR): Maintains stability in the range of 3.1% - 3.6%, creating a real source of income for investors.
Restaking Protocol: The rise of EigenLayer with over 19.5 billion USD TVL has turned ETH into a multi-purpose asset, securing many different services beyond the main network.
Institutional Approvals and ETF Effects
The approval of Spot Ethereum ETFs has completely changed the capital flow landscape. The performance of major funds in Q3 2025 is as follows:
iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA): Growth from $4.35 billion to $15.85 billion (up 264%).
Fidelity Ethereum Fund (FETH): Growth from $1.23 billion to $3.68 billion (up 199%).
Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE):Grows from 2.81 billion USD to 4.38 billion USD (up 56%).
Total ETF market: Reaches a scale of 27.63 billion USD with a net capital flow of more than 10 billion USD in just one quarter.
Competitive Position and Price Forecast 2026
Despite pressure from Solana - the network that dominates retail transactions and memecoins - Ethereum still maintains its "golden" position in the eyes of financial institutions thanks to its security and clear upgrade path. Basic comparison indicators show:
Smart Contract Market Share: Ethereum still holds about 70% market share, while Solana is growing strongly at 10-15%.
DEX Volume: Solana has surpassed Ethereum at some point thanks to low fees, but Ethereum and Layer 2s still dominate in terms of total locked value (TVL).
User base: Ethereum focuses on financial institutions and real asset tokenization (RWA), while Solana attracts retail users and the gaming segment.
Based on analytical models compiled by Tan Phat Digital, ETH price forecast for the coming period is divided but generally positive:
Standard Chartered: Forecasts $10,000 - $15,000 by 2026 based on institutional capital flows.
Arthur Hayes (BitMEX): Targets $10,000 thanks to monetary easing and staking demand.
AI models (ChatGPT-5, DeepSeek): Include The price range is from 5,800 USD to 15,000 USD depending on the accumulation speed of the ETF funds.
Summary from Tan Phat Digital: Ethereum 2.0 has successfully transformed from an experimental platform to an infrastructure global finance. The combination of structural scarcity, stable staking yields, and outstanding scalability through the Fusaka upgrade will be the main driving force to push ETH value to new milestones in 2026.
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