A month into 2025, Ethereum faces growing uncertainty despite its established dominance in the smart contract space. While ETH registered notable gains in 2024, it lagged behind major competitors like Solana, XRP, and SUI, raising concerns about its ability to maintain market leadership.

The Ethereum Foundation also had a challenging year, dealing with transparency issues, leadership shifts, and increasing skepticism from the community. With experts divided on Ethereum’s future, the question remains: Does it still offer strong investment potential, or are alternative ecosystems becoming more attractive?

Ethereum is Lagging Behind Major Competitors

In 2024, Ethereum ended the year with a 63% gain, but this was far below its major competitors. Bitcoin rose 123%, BNB climbed 134%, and Solana surged 138%.

Smaller players like Hedera (300%), XRP (335%), and SUI (555%) outperformed significantly, suggesting that capital flowed into alternative ecosystems with higher returns.

Ethereum and Hedera were also the only assets in this group that failed to reach a new all-time high. Ethereum’s peak in 2024 barely exceeded $4,000, still well below its 2021 record of $4,864.

When analyzing fees generated in the last 30 days, Ethereum is on the verge of leaving the top 10, with $133 million in fees, just ahead of Pumpfun ($123 million).

Notably, five of the top 10 are Solana-based, including Jito, Raydium, Meteora, and Pump, which, along with Solana itself, have all generated more fees than ETH.

Ethereum Foundation Suffered a Lot of Criticism Last Year

Last year was tough for the Ethereum Foundation, facing heavy criticism on multiple fronts. Issues began when key members took advisory roles at EigenLayer, one of Ethereum’s most hyped projects. The foundation was also called out for a lack of transparency after a $100 million transfer to Kraken.

Further controversy arose when reports suggested that the foundation was selling ETH every 11 days, prompting Vitalik to defend its neutrality and reject staking ETH.

“We are indeed currently in the process of large changes to EF leadership structure, which has been ongoing for close to a year. Some of this has already been executed on and made public, and some is still in progress,” Buterin posted on X (formerly Twitter) back in January.

Recently, Vitalik hinted that the foundation might reconsider ETH staking to cover expenses. On January 18, he announced “large changes” to the leadership structure, aiming for stronger technical expertise and better communication with developers, users, and Layer 2 projects. Despite this, the community remains skeptical, with ETH down 17.5% since his statement.

With ongoing leadership changes, financial concerns, and transparency issues, some in the community see the Ethereum Foundation as directionless.

Confidence in its long-term vision appears shaky, and uncertainty around Ethereum’s next development phases could be weighing on sentiment.

Experts Show Mixed Sentiment About the Future of Ethereum

On X, opinions on Ethereum are divided. Max Resnick, Lead Economist at Anza, suggests Uniswap may have missed an opportunity by not launching on Solana.

He highlights that Raydium, a Solana-exclusive DEX, is now generating more volume and fees than Uniswap, despite Uniswap operating across multiple chains.

“Probably the best advice you could’ve given uniswap 6-12 months ago would have been to launch on Solana as soon as possible. Influential people, some of whom I think are very smart and respect told them to launch the 1000th Ethereum L2. This is the result,” Resnick wrote.

Anton Bukov, co-founder of 1Inch, takes a different stance, praising Ethereum and its Layer 2 solutions for their simplicity and developer-friendly environment.

“Despite market uncertainty about leading smart contract platforms, I am pretty sure it’s still obviously the most popular and simple platform for developers – Ethereum and its L2s,” Bukov wrote.

Crypto investor Ted Pillows remains optimistic, pointing to potential catalysts for Ethereum, such as a Trump administration and the possibility of an Ethereum Staking ETF.

On the other hand, Crypto Data expert Kofi argues that the Ethereum Foundation should not be viewed as the face of Ethereum, reinforcing the idea that the network’s strength lies in its decentralized nature.

The EF does a lot of important work. People don’t realise it because the EF: – Don’t aggressively promote their work – Allow the teams they support to take full credit for wins This is intentional. The EF is not meant to be the face of Ethereum. The EF is supposed to steward the infinite garden, supporting an increasingly diverse network of contributors from the background. Until, one day, it’s no longer needed,” wrote Kofi.

To Sum It Up: Is ETH Worth Investing?

Ethereum’s struggles in 2024 signal a troubling trend for its future as competitors like Solana, XRP, and SUI continue to capture market share with higher returns, lower fees, and better scalability.

The Ethereum Foundation’s ongoing transparency issues, leadership turmoil, and lack of clear direction only add to the uncertainty, making it less attractive for investors seeking stability.

With Solana-based applications now outpacing Ethereum in fee generation and innovation shifting elsewhere, Ethereum’s relevance as the leading smart contract platform is no longer guaranteed.

Unless it addresses these challenges quickly, ETH may no longer be the best investment choice in 2025.

Raydium’s (RAY) price has rebounded more than 10% after the Monday morning crash, pushing its market cap close to $2 billion. Technical indicators are now showing signs of a potential bullish continuation.

RAY’s revenue and trading volume remain among the highest, reinforcing its position as a leading Web3 protocol. Whether RAY can sustain this momentum or face another downturn will depend on its ability to hold key support levels and confirm an uptrend.

Raydium Is One of The Biggest Blockchain Applications In The Market

Raydium has emerged as one of the top revenue-generating blockchain protocols, bringing in over $42 million in the last seven days. This puts it ahead of major players like Circle, Uniswap, and even Ethereum in terms of earnings.

Over the past year, Raydium has generated nearly $1 billion in revenue, coming remarkably close to Solana’s $965 million.

In terms of trading volume, Raydium has handled around $3.4 billion in the last 24 hours and $21 billion over the past week, solidifying its place as one of the most used Web3 projects ever.

RAY RSI Is Recovering After Hitting Oversold Levels

Raydium’s RSI is currently at 53.87, rising sharply from 20.8 just two days ago. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) measures momentum by tracking recent price movements, with values below 30 indicating oversold conditions and above 70 signaling overbought levels.

The recent jump suggests that buying pressure has increased, bringing Raydium out of oversold territory and into a more neutral range.

At 53.87, Raydium’s RSI is neither strongly bullish nor bearish, leaving room for further price movement in either direction. Notably, RAY hasn’t touched the 70 levels, which would indicate overbought conditions, since January 19.

This suggests that while the asset has seen renewed strength, it hasn’t yet entered a strong bullish phase. The next trend confirmation will depend on whether the RSI continues to rise or stall at current levels.

RAY Price Prediction: A Further 33% Upside?

Raydium’s price recently corrected by 34% between January 30 and February 3 but has since rebounded nearly 30%. Its EMA lines suggest that a golden cross, where the shortest-term moving average crosses above the longer-term ones, could be forming soon.

If this happens, RAY price could continue its recovery, with a strong uptrend potentially pushing it to retest $7.92. A breakout above that level could lead to further gains, with $8.7 as the next major target, representing a possible 33% upside.

However, if RAY fails to maintain its momentum, it could test support at $5.85, with a breakdown leading to $5.36. A deeper sell-off could see it drop further to $4.71 or even $4.14, marking its lowest level since January 13.

US Ethereum ETFs hit record volume Monday as investors bought the dip despite market downturns. The nine ETFs saw $1.5 billion in total trading volume, with a $84 million inflow from new investors.

Although the ETFs are performing quite well, trouble remains on the horizon. Their trade volumes are becoming increasingly uncoupled from Ethereum itself as the community faces leadership crises and shaken public confidence.

Ethereum ETFs See Record Trading Volumes

Ethereum has been in a challenging spot lately, but its ETFs are pulling huge numbers. Ethereum was already struggling with declining user counts and falling prices, but Trump’s tariff threats brought huge shocks to the whole crypto market.

However, even while the altcoin was struggling, ETF investors bought the dip in huge amounts, leading to $1.5 billion in trading volume.

Essentially, the broader market shocks triggered huge levels of panic-selling, stop-loss triggers, and forced liquidations. As a key asset for the DeFi space, ETH is vulnerable to swings from overall leveraged trading.

These outflows pumped up the ETFs’ trading volume, and Ethereum delivered net inflows, including $84 million from new investors.

After these complicated actions, Ethereum’s price somewhat recovered from Monday’s early market crash.

However, the leading altcoin has been struggling for a few different reasons. Leadership restructuring at Ethereum has shaken public confidence in the firm, feeding price concerns.

Meanwhile, Ethereum ETFs also have a few bullish factors under their belt. They set a new record for inflows in December, attracting more than $2 billion in institutional interest despite a flagging price.

This trend continued throughout January, with heightened ETF trade despite widening cracks in the Ethereum Foundation.

Additionally, a few outside factors helped juice this rally. Donald Trump’s son, Eric Trump, encouraged his followers to invest in Ethereum via social media.

“In my opinion, it’s a great time to add ETH,” Eric Trump posted.

Open interest in ETH futures contracts on the CME also climbed around 6%, signaling institutional interest. Together, these revenue streams helped guarantee big gains.

Ultimately, Ethereum ETFs are doing well, but the underlying asset’s broader future is still uncertain. Community turmoil is causing serious cracks in the asset’s support base.

This is especially concerning because ETH enjoys prestige and reputation due to its long history in the space. Ultimately, these ETF trades may only paper over broader concerns.