From Metaverse to Blockchain: A New Turning Point in the Web3 Technology Ecosystem by 2025

Paradigm Shift in the Web3 Ecosystem: From Speculation to Practicality

Entering 2025, the Web3 technology ecosystem stands at the center of a fundamental transformation. Speculative Web3 projects that led the metaverse and NFT craze from 2021 to 2023 are rapidly shifting towards a focus on practicality and sustainability. According to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, global NFT trading volume in the first half of 2025 decreased by 67% compared to the same period the previous year, while the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi protocols increased by 23% to $184.7 billion. This change indicates that Web3 technology is maturing from a mere speculative tool to an infrastructure that creates substantial economic value.

Notably, the adoption of Web3 at the corporate level is accelerating. According to Deloitte’s 2025 Global Blockchain Survey, 76% of companies worldwide plan to integrate blockchain technology into their core business processes, a significant increase from 61% in 2024. These companies primarily utilize blockchain for practical purposes such as supply chain transparency, digital identity verification, and building decentralized data storage. McKinsey & Company forecasts that the enterprise blockchain solutions market will reach $67 billion by 2025.

Significant changes are also being observed in the metaverse sector. Metaverse platforms, which focused on virtual reality (VR) headsets and avatar-centric social experiences until 2023, are now concentrating on developing real business use cases. According to a recent Gartner report, 68% of investments related to the metaverse in 2025 are expected to focus on B2B solutions aimed at enhancing productivity, such as remote collaboration, digital twins, and virtual education. This stands in stark contrast to the investment patterns of 2024, which were centered on B2C gaming and entertainment.

Strategic Restructuring and Market Trends of Major Companies

Meta Platforms (Menlo Park, California) is one of the most notable companies in the 2025 Web3 strategy. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in the October earnings report that the 2025 goal for the metaverse division, Reality Labs, is to develop “practical solutions for mass adoption.” In fact, Meta has been focusing on expanding its enterprise metaverse platform ‘Workrooms’ rather than selling VR headsets since the fourth quarter of 2024. According to IDC data, Meta’s revenue from enterprise VR/AR solutions increased by 156% year-on-year to $1.8 billion in the first quarter of 2025.

NVIDIA (Santa Clara, California) is also playing a key role in building Web3 infrastructure. CEO Jensen Huang declared at the 2025 GTC Conference that the “Omniverse platform will evolve beyond a mere 3D collaboration tool to become a complete metaverse infrastructure.” NVIDIA’s Omniverse is currently used by 7 million developers and 40,000 companies worldwide, with an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $2.4 billion as of the first half of 2025. The platform is increasingly being used for building digital twins in industries such as automotive, architecture, and manufacturing.

Korean companies also hold a unique position in the Web3 ecosystem. Based in Seoul, Wemade has completely revamped its Web3 game publishing platform ‘WEMIX PLAY’ in 2025, building on the success of its blockchain game ‘MIR4.’ CEO Henry Chang indicated a strategic shift by stating, “We will focus more on gameplay and user experience than on token economy.” In fact, the proportion of token transaction fees in Wemade’s game revenue for the first quarter of 2025 decreased significantly to 23% from 47% in the same period in 2024. Instead, revenue from in-game item sales and subscription services accounted for 77% of the total, stabilizing the revenue structure.

In the entertainment sector, HYBE (Seoul) is gaining attention. Chairman Bang Si-hyuk set “building a fan community platform utilizing Web3 technology” as a core goal in his 2025 New Year’s address. HYBE plans to invest 45 billion won, a 300% increase from 2024, in developing NFT-based digital photocards and virtual concert platforms for its artists. Virtual concerts by BTS and NewJeans have already demonstrated the potential of Web3 entertainment, with 1.2 million and 850,000 concurrent viewers, respectively.

Microsoft (Redmond, Washington) has established a unique position in enterprise Web3 solutions. CEO Satya Nadella announced the integration of “Azure Blockchain Service and Mesh platform” at the 2025 Build Conference. This integration enables companies to build secure metaverse environments based on blockchain. Microsoft’s revenue from Web3-related cloud services reached $6.7 billion in the first half of 2025, growing by 89% year-on-year.

As competition intensifies in the global Web3 market, technological differentiation is also accelerating. In the Layer 2 solutions sector, Polygon and Arbitrum are engaged in fierce competition. Polygon’s daily transaction volume in the first half of 2025 reached 3.5 million, significantly surpassing Ethereum’s mainnet volume of 1.8 million, with an average transaction fee of $0.01, much lower than the mainnet’s $15. Arbitrum also showed strong growth, with its total value locked (TVL) increasing by 234% year-on-year to $15.6 billion.

Innovation continues in the decentralized storage field, a core component of Web3 infrastructure. The Filecoin network currently provides 18.5 exabytes (EB) of storage capacity worldwide and plans to expand to 30EB by the end of 2025. This capacity is equivalent to about 3% of global data center capacity. The advantages of being 70% cheaper than existing cloud services like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud, while ensuring censorship resistance and data sovereignty, are attracting corporate interest.

In the Chinese market, despite strict government regulations on cryptocurrencies, investment and research in Web3 technology itself are actively progressing. Alibaba Cloud plans to invest 5 billion yuan (approximately $7 billion) in developing blockchain-based supply chain management and digital identity verification solutions through the ‘Web3 Developer Support Program’ by 2025. Tencent also introduced NFT-based digital collectible trading features on its gaming platform, recording an additional 1.2 billion yuan in revenue in the first quarter of 2025 alone.

As the practical application of Web3 technology spreads, the demand for related talent is also surging. According to LinkedIn data, job postings for blockchain developers in the first half of 2025 increased by 178% year-on-year, with an average salary of $150,000, 87% higher than that of general software developers. In particular, developers proficient in Solidity and Rust programming languages are in high demand, with senior blockchain architects earning salaries exceeding $300,000 in some cases.

Changes in the regulatory environment also significantly impact the development of the Web3 ecosystem. In the United States, following the approval of a Bitcoin spot ETF in 2024, an Ethereum staking ETF is expected to be approved in the first half of 2025. With the full implementation of the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) in December 2024, companies can pursue Web3 businesses under a clearer regulatory framework. South Korea is also strengthening the institutional foundation of the Web3 ecosystem by implementing virtual asset taxation starting in July 2025.

In terms of technological innovation, zero-knowledge proof technology is emerging as a key solution to address scalability and privacy issues in Web3. Layer 2 solutions utilizing zero-knowledge proof technologies such as zk-SNARK and zk-STARK are processing over 100,000 transactions per second while ensuring mainnet-level security. StarkNet and zkSync are representative platforms, with their total transaction volume exceeding 5 million daily transactions as of the first half of 2025.

In the Web3 gaming sector, the transition from ‘Play-to-Earn’ to ‘Play-and-Earn’ models is accelerating. While Axie Infinity’s monthly active users (MAU) plummeted from 2.8 million in 2022 to 450,000 in 2025, new games prioritizing gameplay, such as Gods Unchained and Illuvium, have secured 1.5 million and 890,000 MAUs, respectively, reshaping the market. This change indicates that Web3 games are moving away from reliance on token economies to focus on providing sustainable gaming experiences.

Significant progress is also being made in the field of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). As of 2025, approximately 8,500 DAOs are operating worldwide, managing total assets of $14.7 billion. Investment DAOs and protocol DAOs account for 62% of the total, driving the democratization of corporate governance and investment decision-making processes. The Uniswap DAO processed 17 major protocol upgrade proposals in the first half of 2025 alone, with an average participation voting rate of 34%, a significant improvement from 21% in the same period last year.

With the growth of the Web3 ecosystem, interest in environmental sustainability is also increasing. Following Ethereum’s transition to Proof-of-Stake, which reduced energy consumption by 99.9%, other major blockchains are accelerating the adoption of eco-friendly consensus mechanisms. Solana announced that it achieved carbon neutrality in 2025, and Cardano reported that 78% of its validator nodes use renewable energy. This environmentally friendly approach, aligned with ESG investment trends, is acting as a catalyst for institutional investors to invest in Web3.

The competition in central bank digital currency (CBDC) development is also providing new momentum to the Web3 ecosystem. As of 2025, 114 countries worldwide are conducting CBDC research or pilot projects, with China’s digital yuan reaching a cumulative transaction volume of 175 billion yuan (approximately $24.5 billion). The European Central Bank’s digital euro and the Bank of Japan’s digital yen are also set for official launch in 2026, making interoperability with Web3 payment infrastructure an important technical challenge.

One of the key technologies that will determine the future of the Web3 ecosystem is interoperability. The IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication) protocol of Cosmos and the cross-chain bridge of Polkadot enable asset and data transfer between different blockchains, evolving the Web3 ecosystem from isolated islands to connected continents. As of the first half of 2025, cross-chain transaction volume reached $2.3 billion daily, a 289% increase from the same period last year.

Institutional investors are also actively investing in Web3. BlackRock launched a $3.5 billion digital asset fund in the first half of 2025, while Fidelity and Vanguard introduced blockchain-related investment products worth $2.8 billion and $1.9 billion, respectively. These institutional investors are adopting strategies that go beyond simple cryptocurrency investments to directly invest in Web3 infrastructure and protocols. JPMorgan Chase announced that it processed $420 billion in inter-institutional transactions through its own blockchain network ‘Onyx’ in the first half of 2025 alone.

The growth of the Web3 ecosystem presents new opportunities and challenges for traditional internet companies. Twitter (now X) introduced NFT profile pictures and token tip features for creator monetization, while Reddit transitioned its community points system to blockchain-based. These changes indicate that Web2 platforms are gradually integrating Web3 technology, evolving to give users more ownership and control. Discord’s premium subscribers increased by 23% after introducing NFT avatar support, and creators’ average earnings improved by 67%.

Practical applications of Web3 technology are also prominently emerging in the arts and creative fields. Traditional galleries and auction houses are fully entering NFT-based digital art trading, creating new revenue models. Sotheby’s announced that its NFT auction revenue for the first half of 2025 increased by 145% year-on-year to $123 million. Christie’s also introduced a blockchain-based artwork authenticity certification service, improving counterfeit detection accuracy to 98.7%. These changes suggest that NFTs are establishing themselves as practical technology ensuring the ownership and authenticity of artworks, rather than mere speculative tools.

In the education sector, the adoption of Web3 technology is accelerating. Blockchain-based degree certification systems and decentralized learning platforms are gaining attention, especially as the spread of remote education raises the importance of the reliability and portability of digital credentials. MIT began recording all diplomas on the blockchain starting in 2025, and Stanford University issues online course completion certificates in NFT form. These blockchain-based educational credentials are impossible to forge and globally verifiable, contributing to improved global talent mobility.

In the healthcare sector, Web3 solutions for patient data ownership and privacy protection are gaining attention. Blockchain-based medical record management systems allow patients to have complete control over their data while enabling secure information sharing among medical professionals. U.S. healthcare institutions adopting the MedRec protocol reported an 82% reduction in patient data breach incidents and a 67% reduction in information sharing time among medical professionals. Pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Roche are also adopting blockchain technology to ensure the transparency and integrity of clinical trial data.

In the real estate sector, real estate tokenization is emerging as a new investment model. This model, which divides high-value real estate into multiple tokens to allow small investors to participate in real estate investment, formed a global market worth $8.7 billion as of the first half of 2025. Real estate tokenization platforms like RealT in the U.S. and BrickMark in Europe offer average annual returns of 8-12%, attracting investor interest. The Singapore government introduced a blockchain-based lottery system for public housing allocation in 2025, significantly enhancing transparency and fairness.

In supply chain management, the use of Web3 technology has already become a reality. Walmart announced that its blockchain-based food tracking system, introduced in 2019, reduced food safety incidents by 78% by the first half of 2025. Nestlé and Unilever also built systems to track the entire supply chain from raw material procurement to final consumer using blockchain. These systems not only ensure product authenticity but also respond to consumer demands for sustainability and ethical sourcing. De Beers’ Tracr platform completely blocks conflict diamond transactions by tracking the entire process from diamond mining to sale.

With the development of the Web3 ecosystem, new job categories and business models are emerging. In the creator economy, NFT artists, metaverse architects, and blockchain game designers have established themselves as new professions. The top 1% of NFT creators active on OpenSea earn an average annual income of $2.5 million, and virtual real estate developers in the metaverse earn an average of $500,000 per project. This new economic ecosystem provides an environment where individuals can directly generate income from their creations and ideas, beyond traditional employment relationships.

However, challenges that need to be addressed continue to exist alongside the growth of the Web3 ecosystem. Scalability remains a major technical limitation, with Ethereum’s high transaction fees and slow processing speeds being obstacles to mass adoption. From a user experience (UX) perspective, Web3 applications are still complex and difficult for general users to use. Learning how to use wallet applications like MetaMask and securely storing seed phrases remain significant entry barriers for users unfamiliar with technology.

Security issues are also an important challenge that the Web3 ecosystem must address. In the first half of 2025 alone, cryptocurrency losses due to hacking amounted to $1.8 billion, a 34% increase from the same period last year. Attacks targeting vulnerabilities in DeFi protocol smart contracts accounted for 67% of the total losses, highlighting the urgent need for code audits and security enhancements. The importance of oracle services like Chainlink is also increasing, as the reliability and accuracy of external data are directly related to the stability of the entire DeFi ecosystem.

Future Outlook and Investment Opportunities

The outlook for the Web3 ecosystem in the second half of 2025 is dominated by cautious optimism. According to a recent PwC report, the global Web3 market is expected to grow from $41.2 billion in 2025 to $124 billion in 2030, with an average annual growth rate of 24.7%. This growth is primarily attributed to the maturation of enterprise blockchain solutions, metaverse infrastructure, and DeFi protocols. In particular, the enterprise Web3 solutions market is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 31.2%, reaching $480 billion by 2030.

From an investment perspective, the Web3 ecosystem is still in its early stages and is evaluated to have significant long-term growth potential. Venture capital investment has been recovering since the fourth quarter of 2024, with Web3-related investment reaching $8.9 billion in the first half of 2025, a 156% increase year-on-year. Infrastructure-related investments account for 42% of the total, with Layer 2 solutions, cross-chain protocols, and developer tools emerging as major investment targets. Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) established a $4.5 billion Web3 dedicated fund in 2025, and Sequoia Capital launched a $3.5 billion blockchain investment fund.

In the Korean market, the adoption of Web3 technology is expected to accelerate in line with the government’s ‘Digital New Deal 2.0’ policy. The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to invest 1.2 trillion won in developing metaverse and blockchain technology by 2025, with 60% of the investment focused on developing enterprise solutions and public services. In particular, the adoption of blockchain in public sectors such as digital identity verification, electronic voting systems, and public data management is expected to drive growth in the private sector.

In terms of technological innovation, the combination of quantum computing and blockchain, as well as the convergence of artificial intelligence and Web3, are emerging as major trends. Following Google’s announcement of the Willow quantum chip, interest in quantum-resistant encryption technology is rising, and major blockchain projects are working to enhance security in preparation for the quantum computing era. The combination of large-scale language models like OpenAI’s GPT series and blockchain is also opening up new possibilities, with decentralized AI inference networks and tokenization of AI model ownership gaining attention.

In conclusion, the Web3 ecosystem in 2025 is building a more robust and sustainable foundation as it shifts its focus from speculative frenzy to practical value creation. Individual technologies such as metaverse, blockchain, and DeFi are connecting and integrating to form a new digital economic ecosystem, providing new opportunities for both businesses and individuals. While challenges remain in terms of technology, regulation, and user experience, the mainstreaming of Web3 technology is no longer a distant future but an ongoing reality in line with the global acceleration of digital transformation. For investors and companies, accurately understanding these changes and establishing appropriate strategies will be key elements in securing a competitive advantage in the future.