Quick Facts
– Second-layer expansion significantly reduces costs: Rollup technology reduces transaction fees to less than $1 and throughput to 2,000+ TPS, fundamentally solving Ethereum’s congestion problem before 2025.
– Tokenization of physical assets enables everyone to “pool their shares”: On-chain tokenization allows trillion-level assets such as real estate, bonds, and artworks to be split into small shares, making it easy for ordinary people to enter the market.
– DePIN network crowdsources real infrastructure: from Helium hotspots to decentralized storage and edge computing, community hardware naturally expands to form a truly decentralized service.
– Web3 three-in-one ignites mass applications: The second layer, RWA and DePIN work together to completely clear cost, liquidity and infrastructure barriers, paving the way for large-scale popularization in the second half of 2025.
Before 2025, users have been tortured by high transaction fees and fragmented applications - these are exactly the pain points that Layer-2 expansion will solve in 2025. At that time, Ethereums gas war often pushed the cost of a single transaction to $20-50, which was prohibitive for the public. The DeFi protocol on Layer-1 was in short supply and paralyzed by congestion. At the same time, the popularity of NFTs has gradually receded due to the lack of lasting value, and the traditional financial system is still operating independently from the digital market. The three major narratives of the second half of Web3 (2025 H2 ) just provide answers to these problems:
– Layer-2 rollup reduces costs and increases growth
– Tokenization of physical assets unlocks institutional funds
– DePIN network enables on-chain coordination of hardware
Table of contents
Why does Web3 need to upgrade?
What problems can Layer-2 expansion solve?
Why is now the best time to deploy RWAs?
What exactly is the DePIN network?
Why does Web3 need to upgrade?
Think about it, where is Web3 now? With high fees, slow networks, and independent applications, it is simply unable to support truly large-scale scenarios. Three forces are currently changing all this:
– Layer-2 expansion : TVL (value locked) here refers to the amount of USD value of assets that users have deposited in second-layer smart contracts, such as DeFi protocols, cross-chain bridges, etc.
–Real Asset Tokenization (RWAs) : This TVL refers to the value of the on-chain loans or real asset collateral on each protocol.
–Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN) : The DePIN network does not look at TVL like traditional DeFi. We use the market value of Filecoin (the largest DePIN token) and the staking or lock-up data of Livepeer and Arweave to roughly outline the “locked” economic volume on their chains.
Putting these three together is the “three-in-one” solution of Web3, which lays the foundation for truly realizing a large-scale blockchain experience with low fees and cross-chain interoperability in the second half of 2025.
What does Layer-2 expansion solve?
Layer-2 Scaling: Data at a Glance
What is Layer-2 Rollup? Why is “Layer-2 Scaling 2025” so important?
There are two main schools of thought on Layer-2 expansion: Optimistic Rollups and Zero-Knowledge Rollups (ZK Rollups). Both of them process transactions “off-chain” and only submit necessary data to the Ethereum mainnet, thereby greatly reducing the burden on the mainnet.
– Optimistic Rollups
For example, Arbitrum (ARB) and Optimism (OP) assume that all batch transactions are valid by default, and only send the minimum necessary data to Ethereum. If malicious behavior is encountered, fraud proof is used to challenge it. This design not only maintains security, but also significantly reduces on-chain gas fees.
– Zero-Knowledge Rollup (ZK Rollups)
Represented by zkSync Era (ZK) , StarkNet, and Polygon zkEVM (POL) , they will package hundreds of transactions into a cryptographic proof and submit it to the Ethereum mainnet to verify the correctness. This not only improves capacity expansion, but also takes into account privacy protection.
At the end of 2024, EIP-4844 (Proto-Danksharding) introduced the blob transaction type, making it cheaper for Layer-2 networks to post data on-chain. This innovation directly led to a surge in usage - by mid-2025, the average daily transaction volume of all Layer-2 Rollups exceeded 12 million, compared to only about 1 million for Ethereum Layer-1 . The average gas fee also plummeted from $30+ per transaction to less than $1, becoming a critical turning point for large-scale Web3 applications in the second half of the year.
Image Credit: COIN 98
L2 core indicators of concern
– With an average of 12 million+ transactions per day vs. Layer-1’s approximately 1 million transactions per day, Rollup has become mainstream;
– The total financing in the past 18 months reached $220 million, of which Arbitrum completed a $120 million Series B round and Optimism won a $100 million strategic round, demonstrating the confidence of capital in on-chain expansion;
– DeFi TVL on major L2 networks exceeds $10 billion, with real money migrating from Ethereum mainnet.
Image Credit: Defillama
What pain points does Layer-2 solve?
- High transaction fees: After batching transactions, the average cost is reduced from tens of dollars to less than $1, making micropayments and on-chain games possible;
– Scalability: Rollup combined throughput exceeds 2,000 TPS, compared to the Ethereum mainnet ~ 15 TPS, and application scenarios are no longer limited;
– Interoperability: Standardized protocols like the shared sequencer and cross-Rollup bridge of Optimism Superchain allow assets and data to flow seamlessly between different L2s, eliminating fragmentation.
Of course, bridge security and sequencer centralization are still two major challenges: cross-chain bridges are easily hacked, and some Rollups still rely on a single sequencer to produce blocks. The emerging decentralized sequencer committee, watchdog service (watch-tower) and unified expansion standards will determine whether Layer-2 can truly become the main road of Web3 in the second half of 2025.
Why focus on RWAs now?
What is Web3 physical asset tokenization?
In a nutshell, it is to package tangible assets in the real world - such as commercial real estate, accounts receivable, artworks, and even rare collectibles - into digital tokens on the blockchain. Each token represents a small share of the ownership of the underlying asset, allowing ordinary investors to buy and sell such high-value assets that were previously only available to institutions or high-net-worth individuals. By fragmenting ownership on the chain, tokenization makes the originally illiquid market accessible to everyone, as long as there is an Internet connection.
Image Credit: Medium
RWA core indicators to focus on
– >$10 billion: By mid-2025, the issuance of RWA on the second-layer network has exceeded $10 billion, indicating that various platforms are implementing tokenization solutions on a large scale.
– 20+ institutions piloted: From Franklin Templeton’s money market fund issued on Optimism Rollup to Societe Generale’s experimental bonds on Polygon zkEVM , major traditional financial institutions have gone online to test the waters.
– $150 billion: According to the latest estimates, the addressable market for real estate tokenization alone is $1.5 trillion, with corporate and rental properties being the biggest highlights.
These figures illustrate an important trend: asset managers and traditional financial institutions are moving from proof-of-concept to real-time issuance, and Web3 physical asset tokenization is moving from niche experiments to production-level deployment.
What pain points does tokenization solve?
– Lowering the threshold: The investment threshold has been reduced from millions of dollars to hundreds of dollars, which has greatly opened the door to the high-value asset market. For example, an office building worth $10 million can be divided into 100,000 tokens, and each token can be purchased for only $100.
– Improve efficiency: KYC/AML compliance checks and programmable transfer restrictions are embedded in the on-chain contracts, automating the compliance process that would otherwise take days or even weeks. Dividend distribution and voting rights redemption are also done through smart contracts, with one click, eliminating the need for manual reconciliation.
– Enhanced transparency: The blockchain’s immutable ledger records every token transfer and ownership change, reducing counterparty risk and enabling real-time verification during audits, with all details clearly visible.
Infrastructure and regulatory support
– Compliance platform: Vendors such as Tokeny , Securitize , and Fnality have already set up institutional-grade compliance channels that integrate identity authentication, token minting, and custody services, providing one-stop support for institutional issuance.
– Settlement stablecoins: PayFi series stablecoins (such as USDP, USDY) are becoming low-cost and high-efficiency settlement channels for cross-chain cash flows.
– Clear regulation accelerates implementation: In the first quarter of 2025, the Monetary Authority of Singapore issued the “Guidelines on Digital Asset Tokenization”, and the EU MiCA officially came into effect, clarifying the definition of tokenized securities and investor protection, freeing up constrained capital, and allocating budgets for major banks and asset management companies to invest in on-chain issuance.
As the predictions for the second half of Web3 (2025 H 2) gradually come true, the tokenization of physical assets will become a key bridge between TradFi and DeFi, bringing trillions of assets onto the chain and ushering in a new financial era that is accessible to everyone, highly transparent, and highly efficient.
What is DePIN Network?
DePIN use cases and the concept of “Uber for infrastructure”
The Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN) uses blockchain coordination and token incentives to connect real-world hardware and services in a crowdsourced manner, just like Uber ride-hailing. The project builds an open, permissionless infrastructure by rewarding individuals to deploy and operate equipment, and expands through community participation rather than centralized investment.
Image Credit: Onchain.org
DePIN Typical Use Cases
– Decentralized Wireless (DeWi): Networks like Helium (HNT) encourage users to install LoRaWAN or 5G hotspots. Each hotspot is rewarded with HNT based on the amount of data transmitted and network demand.
– Distributed storage: Protocols such as Filecoin (FIL) and Arweave (AR) allow node operators to rent out disk space for on-chain data persistence. Storage providers can earn FIL or AR rewards by staking tokens and stably storing encrypted files, providing a decentralized alternative to AWS and Google Cloud.
- Edge computing: Services such as Render Network (RNDR) and Akash Network (AKT) connect users’ idle GPU and CPU computing power to customers who need rendering, machine learning or scientific computing. Contributing computing power can earn token rewards based on usage.
– Maps and Sensors: Hivemapper collects street view images through crowdsourced dashcams, and earns HONEY tokens after uploading them to support a global map project that is continuously updated and comparable to commercial map services.
This model turns underutilized resources such as home routers, idle server racks, and idle vehicles into productivity nodes. All nodes are coordinated on the chain and managed by the coin holder DAO.
DePIN core data focus
– Helium (HNT) has over 350,000 active hotspots around the world, delivering millions of IoT messages every day;
– In 2024, institutional venture capital invested approximately $150 million in DePIN startups, led by a16z and Multicoin Capital;
– As of the second quarter of 2025, Filecoin (FIL) ’s committed storage capacity exceeds 250 PB, and decentralized storage is growing rapidly.
These data reflect both the scale of community participation and the confidence investors have in decentralized wireless networks and other DePIN use cases.
Image Credit: DePIN.Ninja
What problems does DePIN solve?
– Capital efficiency: Leverage existing equipment – Wi-Fi routers, GPUs, storage hard drives – to avoid expensive infrastructure investments and turn idle resources into productive capacity;
– Scalability: As more participants join, the network naturally expands coverage and capacity, no longer constrained by centralized budgets or bottlenecks;
– Community Ownership: Token governance mechanism allows participants to jointly decide on protocol upgrades, fee structures, and resource allocation, ensuring true decentralized control.
Challenges and prospects of DePIN
Despite its promising prospects, DePIN still faces many challenges:
– Regulatory complexity: Wireless network projects need to apply for telecom spectrum licenses, and data-intensive networks must comply with privacy regulations such as GDPR;
– Mismatch between supply and demand: Early incentive programs may exceed actual demand, resulting in many hotspots being idle due to lack of IoT devices or customers;
– Token economic sustainability: Designed to smoothly transition from high launch incentives to a long-term usage-based reward model to prevent inflationary collapse.
To go further, the DePIN project needs to cooperate with enterprises (such as IoT hardware manufacturers, telecom operators) and polish the token economic model. However, the forecast for the second half of Web3 (2025 H 2) shows that the DePIN network, as a community-owned infrastructure, is both efficient and resilient, and will lay a solid foundation for a truly decentralized IoT, storage, and computing power ecosystem.
at last
By the end of 2025, second-layer expansion, Web3 physical asset tokenization, and DePIN use cases will work together to eliminate Web3s bottlenecks in cost, liquidity, and infrastructure. This Web3 forecast for the second half of 2025 heralds the beginning of a new era of blockchain with low transaction fees, cross-chain interoperability, and community co-construction. Are you ready to get involved? Come and share your thoughts on Twitter/X!
FAQ
Q1: What is the second layer expansion in 2025?
Refers to two types of solutions, Optimistic Rollup and ZK Rollup, which batch transactions off-chain to reduce transaction fees and increase the throughput of Ethereum (ETH) .
Q2: What is Web3 physical asset tokenization?
It is to convert real-world assets (such as real estate and invoices) into fragmented tokens that can be traded on the chain to improve liquidity and transparency.
Q3: What are the use cases of DePIN?
Including decentralized wireless networks (such as HNT ), distributed storage (such as FIL ), edge computing power (such as RNDR ) and map crowdsourcing (such as Hivemapper), all use token incentives to crowdsource hardware resources.
Q4: How do these narratives fit into Web3 predictions for the second half of 2025?
They solve exactly the pain points before 2025 — high gas fees, liquidity silos, and high-cost infrastructure — paving the way for blockchain mainstreaming.
Q 5: How can I get involved?
You can start building from an L2 testnet, pilot RWA issuance on a compliant platform, or deploy a DePIN node. Many projects offer grants and developer tools.
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