The market landscape in 2025 is quite interesting. Traditional precious metals like gold and silver have soared all the way up, but digital assets are singing a different tune.

Although Bitcoin hit a historic high of $126,000 earlier this year, which sounds impressive, the correction starting in October completely slapped that away—the full-year gains were wiped out, and the annual line closed down by 6%. Looking at the past decade, only 2018, 2022, and 2025 have ended with declines; this year is indeed quite tough.

Ethereum's situation is even more difficult. The annual decline exceeded 12%, and even though it broke the previous high of 4950, it only just surpassed the last bull market's high of 4860, so there's no real market rally underway.

But there's a very strange phenomenon here. On-chain data for Ethereum should logically reflect price movements, but now the on-chain activity is so "prosperous" that it’s hardly an exaggeration—various traditional capital is trading on the chain, and the trend of everything going on-chain and tokenization is becoming increasingly obvious. The data is hot, but the price is cold, which is indeed abnormal.

Interestingly, 2026 seems to be worth more anticipation. As the tokenization process deepens, infrastructure layers like Ethereum will enter a true value release period. It is entirely possible that it will become the core of the next-generation internet infrastructure, or even the only project with a chance to surpass Bitcoin in market cap. The market is always re-pricing, and the current silence may just be a buildup.