Gate Research Institute: Ethereum institutional bets hit a new high, new public chains accelerate capital acquisition | August 2025 Web3 on-chain data interpretation

Summary

• The on-chain ecosystem is accelerating its differentiation, with Solana maintaining its high-frequency dominance while Ethereum consolidates its high-value position. The structure of capital flow is evolving toward "the rich get richer," with emerging public chains performing brilliantly, while some side chains and L2s are facing pressure from capital withdrawals.
• Ethereum has continued to solidify its position as the core public chain with net capital inflow exceeding 2 billion USD, setting new highs in both price and institutional allocation. Emerging public chains are rising in capital attraction, while sidechains like Polygon have faced large-scale capital outflows, illustrating a pattern of "the strong get stronger."
• After Bitcoin peaked at $124,000, capital inflow has slowed, but selling pressure is mild, and the cost basis support remains solid. Unrealized losses are maintained at low levels, indicating that the current pullback is a phase correction rather than a trend reversal.
• Aave continues to dominate the decentralized lending space and has entered the institutional-grade RWA collateral lending market by launching the Horizon platform, further strengthening its core position in the integration of DeFi and traditional finance.
• BIO has rapidly risen in the DeSci track with the V2 upgrade and ecological expansion, with the token market value and staking volume soaring in tandem, on-chain funds accelerating inflow, demonstrating the potential to continue leading decentralized research.

On-chain Data Summary

Overview of On-Chain Activities and Fund Flows ###

In addition to analyzing the overall capital flow on-chain, we further selected several key on-chain activity indicators to assess the real usage heat and activity of various blockchain ecosystems. These indicators include daily transaction volume, daily Gas fees, daily active addresses, and the net flow of cross-chain bridging, covering multiple dimensions such as user behavior, network usage intensity, and asset liquidity. Compared to merely observing capital inflows and outflows, these on-chain native data can more comprehensively reflect the fundamental changes in public chain ecosystems, helping to determine whether the capital flow is accompanied by actual usage demand and user growth, thereby identifying networks with sustainable development potential.

Trading Volume Analysis: Ethereum Continues to Reach New Heights, Solana Remains at the Top

According to Artemis data, as of August 31, 2025, Solana has consistently maintained its position as the leading mainstream public chain with a monthly transaction volume exceeding 29 billion, with an average daily transaction volume stable between 90 million and 100 million, demonstrating strong on-chain interaction stickiness and a high-frequency application structure. Despite slight fluctuations at the end of the month, the overall activity level still far exceeds that of other public chains, reflecting its ecological vitality and the advantages of an efficient architecture. 【1】

Ethereum's on-chain transaction volume has reached a new high for two consecutive months, surpassing 51.77 million transactions, marking the highest level in nearly four years. This reflects the continued strong activity on the mainnet despite the background of Layer 2 scaling. Although the value of individual transactions is high and Gas costs remain a limiting factor, the overall transaction structure is robust, and the synergistic effect between the mainnet and Layer 2 continues to strengthen.

In addition, according to DefiLlama data, the monthly trading volume on Ethereum's DEX reached $140.1 billion in August 2025, setting a historical record; the current TVL is $92.58 billion, still about 17% lower than the peak in 2021. The trading volume and user activity have risen in sync, indicating a significant increase in capital utilization, with user behavior shifting from static locking to more frequent trading and liquidity usage, showing a trend structure of "trading activity outperforming TVL recovery".

Overall, Solana continues to demonstrate strong performance with its high-frequency interactions and high stickiness structure, maintaining dominance in the on-chain transaction landscape; Base is steadily establishing itself as a major player in the Layer 2 camp; Ethereum, on the other hand, showcases the resilience and value-bearing capacity of a classic public chain under its mainnet's continuous highs and Layer 2 parallel mode. The on-chain transaction ecosystem is accelerating towards a structural differentiation trend of "high-frequency civilian chains" and "low-frequency high-net-worth chains."

Active Address Analysis: Solana Leads, Ethereum Hits New Highs

According to Artemis data, as of August 31, 2025, the daily active addresses on the Ethereum mainnet are about 543,000, showing a steady upward trend, with the total monthly active addresses exceeding 16 million, setting a new historical record, indicating that its user base is steadily expanding.

Solana continues to maintain an absolute lead in active addresses, with an average of 3.587 million per day, demonstrating strong user stickiness and high-frequency usage scenarios; Base ranks second with 1.206 million, reflecting the significant effectiveness of its native ecosystem construction and application traffic diversion.

Overall, Solana maintains an absolute lead in terms of active addresses, Base has rapidly risen to showcase its latecomer advantages, while Ethereum, with its "mainnet + L2" composite structure, forms a more complete ecological interaction system. The on-chain user structure has clearly differentiated into "high-frequency user chains" and "value-bearing chains", with ecological positioning becoming increasingly clear.

On-chain fee income analysis: Ethereum continues to dominate high-value scenarios, while Solana shows strong performance.

According to Artemis data, as of August 31, 2025, the total fee revenue on the Ethereum chain was approximately $65 million. Although this represents a slight decline from the previous month, it still far exceeds that of other public chains. At mid-month, there was a single-day peak close to $5 million, indicating that the trading activity on the mainnet remains high, driven by the activity in DEXs and the deployment of new projects. Despite Layer 2 networks handling a large volume of daily transactions, the high-value interaction demand on the Ethereum mainnet continues to be the main support for its fee revenue. [4]

Solana demonstrates remarkable stability, with a steady trend in transaction fees over the month, and daily revenue basically maintained in the range of 1 million to 1.5 million USD, with overall performance only second to Ethereum, firmly in second place. Solana's high-frequency micro-transaction mechanism keeps its unit transaction fees extremely low, but the large number of transactions still supports a considerable revenue volume, highlighting that its commercialization foundation in high-frequency scenarios has gradually matured.

Overall, Ethereum still firmly holds the dominant position in on-chain fee revenue, Solana performs steadily with high-frequency driving, while Base is steadily rising with its native ecosystem. The differentiation trend in fee revenue is becoming increasingly obvious, corresponding to the different positioning and development paths of each chain between "value-based interactions" and "frequency-based interactions."

Public Chain Capital Flow Analysis: Ethereum Dominates, Polygon Sees the Most Significant Outflow

According to Artemis data, Ethereum recorded over $2 billion in net inflows, continuing to rank first in capital flow among public chains, demonstrating its overwhelming advantages in institutional allocation and ecological depth. Driven by the Fed's "dovish" signals and institutional buying, the price of ETH broke through the historical high of $4,956, with a market capitalization exceeding $580 billion and ETF management scale surpassing $30.5 billion, with a net inflow of nearly $2.8 billion in a single month. Institutional holdings have also risen, with BitMine acquiring 690,000 ETH in one month, accounting for nearly 1% of the global supply, making it the largest publicly held company, further highlighting ETH's dual value of "capital appreciation + cash flow."

At the same time, on-chain applications continue to expand, with Robinhood and Ondo Finance promoting the implementation of stock and stock tokenization trading. The monthly transfer amount of USDC reached as high as $748.3 billion, and the TVL of the DeFi protocol Pendle also exceeded $10 billion, demonstrating Ethereum's core position in compliant finance and DeFi infrastructure continues to solidify.

Apart from Ethereum, WorldChain and Solana also recorded net inflows of 98.8 million and 72.7 million USD respectively, indicating that both emerging and mature public chains have strong capital attraction. In contrast, several mainstream public chains experienced significant capital outflows, with Polygon PoS seeing a net outflow of over 1 billion USD in a single month, while Unichain and Arbitrum recorded net outflows of 490 million USD and 230 million USD respectively. Base also saw an outflow of 190 million USD, reflecting a market rebalancing of valuations and interest in certain L2 and sidechains.

Overall, the capital flow pattern tends to favor the "strong getting stronger", with Ethereum's leading position in capital acceptance, institutional deployment, and ecosystem construction further amplified. Emerging public chains like WorldChain and Solana continue to attract funds through the effect of ecosystem overlap; meanwhile, some early popular L2s and sidechains face pressure from capital withdrawal, with market hotspots switching and liquidity games becoming increasingly frequent.

Bitcoin Key Indicators Analysis

After Bitcoin reached a historical high of $124,000 in August, upward momentum has significantly slowed, and the price has entered a phase of high-level fluctuations and periodic adjustments. As the core anchoring asset of the market, its on-chain structural indicators have also released multiple signals, revealing a deep adjustment in capital behavior and market structure. As capital inflows slow down and demand momentum weakens, the on-chain supply distribution and investor holding conditions are gradually becoming key criteria for judging future trends.

In order to systematically assess the support logic and risk evolution in the current high price range, this article will focus on three core on-chain indicators: capital inflow and outflow with Realized Cap & Net Position Change, profit-taking pressure and market absorption capacity with Volatility Adjusted Realized Profit/Loss, as well as cost basis and risk pressure levels with Cost Basis Distribution & Relative Unrealized Loss. Through these cross observations, a clearer picture of the market's chip distribution, capital support capacity, and potential risks at high levels can be drawn, providing a forward-looking on-chain perspective for judging subsequent market trends.

BTC inflow is slowing down, and there is insufficient high-level demand momentum.

According to Glassnode data, after Bitcoin broke through the historical high of $124,000, its market capitalization has continued to rise, but the speed of capital inflow has significantly slowed down. Compared to the situation when capital net inflow expanded significantly during the historical highs in March and December 2024, the peak of green capital inflow in this round is far lower than the previous levels. This indicates that even with the price reaching new highs, there has not been a significant influx of new funds into the market, and investors' willingness to enter at high levels has noticeably weakened, reflecting a lack of momentum on the demand side and relatively weak financial support.

At the same time, the Volatility Adjusted Net Realized Profit/Loss (7d) shows that during each historical peak (ATH) of Bitcoin, there is often a significant wave of profit-taking. However, during the breakthrough of the new high of $124,000 in August 2025, the scale of profit-taking in the market was relatively mild, with only limited capital outflows, not reaching the extreme levels of the previous two ATHs. [9]

This indicates that investors are currently more inclined to hold rather than rush to cash out. The selling pressure in this round of market is relatively light, and the market structure is more robust. Overall, although insufficient short-term capital inflow limits further upward space, the lower profit-taking pressure helps maintain the market's consolidation at high levels, rather than quickly falling into a deep correction.

BTC cost basis intensively solidified, key support zone gradually being consolidated.

According to Glassnode data, the cost basis distribution heatmap for BTC shows a clear supply concentration zone forming in the $93,000–$110,000 range, which has been accumulating since December 2024 and is gradually becoming an important support area in the current market. Although the recent price has retraced from a high of $124,000, it still operates above this supply zone, indicating strong buying support.

At the same time, the supply is relatively sparse in the range above $110,000, forming what is known as the "blank zone," where prices lack stable support or pressure, resulting in higher volatility. The current market hovers around $111,000, and if it continues to pull back, the solid cost base below may provide support; if it can hold steady, it indicates that market funds have a continuous accumulation of chips in this range, laying the foundation for a subsequent rebound. Overall, this heatmap highlights the concentration of supply and potential bottom effects for BTC in the $93,000–$110,000 range while also revealing that the current market is at a critical support edge.

BTC unrealized losses remain low, market pressure is limited

According to Glassnode data, the Relative Unrealized Loss indicator for BTC surged significantly during the bear market of 2023, reflecting the immense loss pressure investors were under at that time. However, since the end of 2023, this indicator has quickly retreated and has remained low during the period from 2024 to 2025, staying consistently below -0.5 standard deviations.

Compared to historical cycles, the current relative unrealized loss level is only about 0.5%, far lower than the extreme values of over 30% during the bear market phases of 2018-2020 and 2022-2023. This means that although BTC has experienced a pullback from a high of $124,000 recently, the unrealized losses for short-term holders have increased, but the overall market's loss pressure is not severe. Overall, this indicator shows that the market has not entered an extreme panic phase similar to past deep bear markets, and the investor structure remains relatively healthy. In other words, the current pullback is more like a phase correction in the rising process rather than a trend reversal.

Popular Projects and Token Dynamics

On-chain data indicates that funds and users are gradually concentrating towards ecosystems with interactive foundations and deep applications, while projects with topicality and technological innovation capabilities are becoming the new focus of capital pursuit. This article will focus on the recently outstanding popular projects and tokens, analyzing the logic and potential impact behind them.

Overview of Popular Project Data

Aave

Aave is a decentralized lending platform that eliminates traditional financial intermediaries using smart contract technology, allowing users to trade directly. The platform is known for its innovative lending products, supports multiple cryptocurrencies, and employs layer two solutions to enhance efficiency. Aave's operational mechanism includes collateral loans and flash loans, along with a security module to protect the protocol from fund losses. Aave V4 will introduce new features such as a unified liquidity layer and a fuzzy control interest rate feature. In addition, proposals for the Aave Network will enable it to function as an application chain to perform various functions, including charging fees using GHO and integrating Aave V4.

According to DefiLlama data, the total locked value (TVL) of the decentralized lending protocol Aave has surpassed $41.1 billion, setting a new historical record. If the $28.9 billion in outstanding loans on the same day is included in the calculation, Aave's total capital scale would exceed $70 billion, placing it among the top 37 banks in the U.S. (ranking in the top 1.7%). Aave founder Stani Kulechov stated that Aave is an open financial network that can provide institutions with sources of income without relying on the Federal Reserve, highlighting the structural potential of DeFi to replace traditional financial systems. Currently, Aave continues to lead in the DeFi lending sector, holding about 50% of the market TVL, which is nearly 6 times larger than that of the second largest competitor, Morpho, reflecting a high concentration of user and institutional funds on its safety and stability.

Aave Labs recently launched a new platform called Horizon, aimed at providing lending services for institutional investors to obtain stablecoins using tokenized real-world assets (RWA) as collateral. In the initial phase, qualified institutions can use tokenized assets such as government bonds and cryptocurrency holding funds as collateral to borrow stablecoins like USDC, RLUSD, and GHO. The first batch of supported assets includes the Superstate Short-Term U.S. Treasury Fund, Circle Yield Fund, and the tokenized products launched by Centrifuge, Janus Henderson.

The launch of Horizon marks Aave's acceleration in laying out the institutional-level RWA financing market. By introducing traditional financial assets such as government bonds as DeFi collateral, Aave has broadened the issuance and use cases of stablecoins, while providing institutions with tools that combine liquidity and yield management. This not only enhances the market demand and liquidity for stablecoins and RWAs but also promotes the integration of DeFi and TradFi.

In summary, Aave not only maintains a leading position in the decentralized lending space, but its continuous innovation in institutional services also demonstrates clear strategic foresight. As compliance paths become increasingly clear and the types of collateral assets continue to expand, Horizon is expected to become a key entry point for institutions entering DeFi, further strengthening Aave's core position in the global financial architecture.

Overview of Popular Token Data

$BIO

BIO is the native token of Bio Protocol, which is a blockchain project focused on decentralized science (DeSci). It aims to combine on-chain governance with token incentives to create an open research collaboration network involving researchers, patients, and investors. The BIO token can be used to participate in BioDAO governance, project incubation support, and intellectual property revenue distribution, and it can obtain voting rights and reward eligibility through a staking mechanism. Bio Protocol promotes the on-chain transformation of research achievements and their commercialization through IP tokenization, research task incentives, and incubation mechanisms, becoming one of the most representative projects in the DeSci ecosystem.

With the official launch of Bio Protocol V2, new mechanisms such as Launchpad, staking points system, and liquidity engine have been introduced. In the first week after its launch, the total amount staked exceeded 100 million BIO, and the market capitalization of the token quickly doubled to 200 million USD, reigniting market interest in the DeSci track. The price of BIO started at 0.10 USD on August 18 and reached a high of 0.315 USD on August 24, with a weekly increase of nearly 200%, making it one of the best-performing assets on-chain in August.

In terms of ecological expansion, Bio Protocol has accumulated over $4 million in revenue through liquidity fees and is preparing for integration with leading DeFi protocols, including the launch of a dedicated lending market for Bio. The team also plans to launch Bio Copilot, creating a decentralized research agency to automate research processes such as drug screening, clinical operations, and fund allocation, accelerating research into a high-frequency and intelligent iterative stage.

On-chain data also shows that funds are flowing in at an accelerated pace. According to Dune data, the TVL of Bio Protocol has exceeded $22 million, rising more than 110% in the past seven days. Analysts believe that the increase in the medium to long-term locked position ratio is expected to bring sustained upward momentum for BIO, but the high proportion of short-term positions may still trigger phased selling pressure; if long-term funds continue to flow in, BIO is likely to welcome a new round of upward cycle.

In summary, Bio Protocol, with its precise positioning and continuous innovation in the field of decentralized scientific research (DeSci), has not only achieved impressive breakthroughs in on-chain data and market performance but has also successfully attracted deep participation from capital and communities through V2 upgrades, liquidity mechanism optimization, and ecological layout. With products like Bio Copilot continuing to advance, the project is expected to make substantial progress in promoting on-chain scientific research industry chains and empowering scientific automation. If subsequent capital inflow and lock-up structure further optimize, Bio Protocol may continue to lead in the DeSci track, becoming a key bridge connecting scientific innovation and on-chain finance.

Summary

In August 2025, on-chain activities and capital flow structures continued to diversify. Solana maintained its top position in trading with over 29 billion monthly transactions, showcasing its dominance in high-frequency interactions. Meanwhile, Ethereum not only achieved record high transaction volumes on the mainnet for several consecutive months but also led in fee revenue and net capital inflow, solidifying its core position in high-value interaction scenarios and institutional deployments. Base steadily rose, with active addresses surpassing one million, continually expanding its influence within the Layer 2 camp. On the capital front, Ethereum recorded over $2 billion in net inflow in a single month, driving both ETH prices and ETF management size to new highs. WorldChain and Solana also ranked among the top in attracting capital; in contrast, sidechains like Polygon and Unichain, as well as some L2s, faced capital withdrawal pressure, further evolving the on-chain landscape toward a "stronger getting stronger" direction.

In terms of Bitcoin, on-chain indicators show a robust structure under high-level fluctuations, with a slowdown in the speed of capital inflows; however, the profit-taking pressure is relatively mild, and the market selling pressure is limited. The cost basis has formed strong support in the range of $93,000–$110,000, and the short-term pullback has not damaged the key support zone. Unrealized losses remain low, and the overall pressure level is limited. Overall, this round of adjustment leans more towards a phase correction rather than a trend reversal, and after digesting the high-level fluctuations, there remains a structural basis for continued upward movement.

In terms of project hotspots, Aave and Bio Protocol have become the current focus. Aave, as the leader in DeFi lending, has a TVL exceeding $41.1 billion, with a total fund volume of over $70 billion. It is accelerating its layout in RWA collateral and institutional services through Aave V4 and the Horizon platform, reinforcing its position in the integration of DeFi and TradFi. Bio Protocol, on the other hand, has doubled its market value to $20 million due to the V2 upgrade, with prices soaring nearly 200% in a week, and plans to launch Bio Copilot to promote automation in scientific research, demonstrating the strong growth potential of the DeSci sector.
Reference Material:

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