Ethereum reclaims DeFi market as bots drive $480B stablecoin volume

Stablecoins could anchor Ethereum’s real-world adoption, but an analyst warns that the network must solve cross-layer fragmentation to stay ahead in the next phase of DeFi.

The Ethereum network is staging a comeback in 2025 as bot-driven activity and stablecoin growth push the mainnet back into the center of decentralized finance (DeFi). 

On June 4, crypto trading platform CEX.io reported that automated bots facilitated 4.84 million stablecoin transfers on Ethereum’s layer-1 blockchain in May. The volume reached $480 billion, its highest record to date. 

Illia Otychenko, the lead analyst at crypto exchange Cex.io, linked the activity surge to lower transaction fees in the first quarter of 2025, which helped reverse a multi-year trend of liquidity and user migration to rival blockchains and Ethereum layer-2 networks. 

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