Token Terminal just dropped one of the most ETH-maximal threads of 2025, and the numbers are absolutely brutal for anyone still coping that "Ethereum is dead."

The standout visual everyone is sharing: applications on Ethereum are now hosting **over $330 billion in user deposits. That's not network TVL with staking included – this is pure application-level TVL (lending, DEXs, restaking, RWA protocols, etc.). Ethereum is literally in a different league.

Look at that chart. Ethereum's blue bar is basically touching the top of the graph while every other chain is fighting for scraps down near the x-axis. Base is doing respectable numbers (probably ~$80-90B range judging by the bar height), then everyone else is pocket change in comparison.

The rest of the thread is just as savage:

• Native stablecoin supply on Ethereum → $180B+
• Tokenized private credit / funds → $15B+
• Tokenized stocks → $140M+
• Active loans in lending protocols → $25B+
• Daily DEX volume → $800M+
• TTM app fees / "GDP" → $8.5B+
• ETH trading at only 1.1× FDV / Application TVL and 1.9× FDV / stablecoin supply

And yes, L1 + L2 activity is at all-time highs.

So why the hell are we, the meme coin degenerates, supposed to care?

Simple.

Ethereum (and its L2s) is where the real money lives.

That $330B+ isn't retail gambling money – it's institutions, whales, DAOs, and corporations parking serious capital in Aave, Compound, Morpho, Sky, BlackRock's BUIDL, Ondo, etc. That capital creates insanely deep liquidity pools, tiny slippage on large trades, and a gravitational pull that eventually sucks in everything else.

Meme coin traders feel this in two ways:

1. When the meta eventually rotates back to Ethereum L2s (Base, Arbitrum, Blast, etc.), those launches get instant multi-hundred-million liquidity because the money is already there waiting.

2. When you actually want to cash out a 1000x bag without dumping the chart, you usually end up bridging to Ethereum ecosystem DEXs or selling OTC to funds that live on Ethereum. The exit liquidity is here.

Meanwhile Solana still owns the viral launch meta in 2025 because:

• sub-second finality
• pennies per tx
• Pump.fun / Moonshot / whatever new launcher is hot this week

But Solana's application TVL is tiny in this chart for a reason – most of the money there is flowing through Raydium pools for 2 hours and then either rugged or dumped. Very little of it actually stays locked long-term.

Base is the interesting middle ground right now – it's an Ethereum L2, so it benefits from Ethereum's security and liquidity bridges, but it has Solana-like UX and costs. That's why we're seeing more serious meme launches (and way more surviving ones) migrate there in late 2025.

Bottom line for meme traders:

Ethereum's $330B TVL mountain is setting a higher and higher floor for the entire crypto market cap. When real capital rotates into crypto again, it lands on Ethereum first. The L2s get the retail frenzy, but the settlement and deep liquidity still run through ETH ecosystem.

So keep pumping your Solana cat coins today, but remember where the institutions are actually parking their billions tomorrow.

Full Token Terminal thread here → https://x.com/tokenterminal/status/1995484312481960199

All dashboards linked in the thread are worth bookmarking if you want to track where the real money is moving next.