Crypto Crystal Ball 2025: Could Ethereum Updates Finally Drive Mass Adoption?

As we enter 2025, many questions are floating around crypto – and not just about pricing and regulation. The underlying technology that powers some of the industry’s most popular tools is also about to change in the new year, and those shifts could have major consequences for users.

For our annual Crypto Crystal Ball series we take a hard look at the stories that are likely to shape the coming year, and how they are likely to impact you.

After a look at how much political capital Donald Trump might be willing to devote to the crypto industry’s top priorities, here’s how an upcoming tech upgrade to Ethereum could finally pave the way for crypto to go mainstream at the consumer level.

For years, the crypto industry has prayed for the arrival of mass adoption. But time and time again, on-chain products and experiences have failed to attract as many users as their Web2 rivals.

A major update for Ethereum, scheduled for February, could change that – making on-chain apps much easier to use for regular consumers.

David Silverman, senior vice president of strategic business initiatives at Ethereum scaling project Polygon, shared Declutter that during the 2021 crypto bull market, millions of people were interested in exploring on-chain apps, but the technology wasn’t ready yet. Come the 2025 bull cycle (knock on wood), Silverman says crypto products will finally be ready.

“If we see a massive influx of interest in the next cycle, we will be able to show a great example of what we think the future of Web3 is,” Silverman said, “rather than just a glimmer of hope.”

Why? Developers say Ethereum is coming Pectra upgrade will remove barriers that previously caused on-chain apps headaches. Goodbye gas fees and special wallets for navigating smart contracts; hello signing transactions with FaceID – and surfing a number of on-chain apps without having to sign transactions at all.

A key innovation in Pectra will lend smart wallet functionality to the types of basic wallets issued by mainstream companies such as Coinbase and MetaMask. In February, users of these wallets will be able to pay gas fees on Ethereum and all L2s with any cryptocurrency of their choice, including stablecoins. They will also be able to sign for transactions using universal tools such as Apple’s FaceID and TouchID.

These effortless signing mechanisms will now also be able to “enable much more complex on-chain interactions with a single click,” Mark Tyneway, the co-founder of Ethereum Layer-2 Network Optimism, told us. Declutter.

Take session keys for example. Previously impossible, session keys will soon allow regular crypto users to navigate a site or app for hours while completing dozens of secure on-chain interactions, all without the user knowing what’s happening on the backend.

“You could put the whole Instagram experience on chain and it wouldn’t feel like that,” Tyneway said Declutter. “It will trigger a huge wave of innovation.”

Polygon’s Silverman says Pectra will soon enable many crypto app developers to create seamless experiences that sponsor gas fees and omit transaction signings, leaving products that look and feel like leading Web2 apps but offer distinctive Web3 benefits .

“Crypto UX is about to level up,” Silverman said. “This is the unlock.”