Ethereum upgrade Fusaka arrives: Is it time to ‘buy the fear’ again?

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) are dominating sentiment right now. 

Millions have been wiped out, key support levels have broken down, and overall risk appetite has pulled back. With capitulation risk resurfacing, the “expected” Q4 tailwind is slipping deeper into negative territory.

All in all, December is kicking off with a clear bearish bias.

For Ethereum [ETH] upgrade, the timing is far from ideal, with the Fusaka launch set to go live on the 3rd of December. The question now is: Does this set the stage for the classic “buy the fear while others panic-sell”?

Pectra upgrade sparked Ethereum’s mid-year rally

Despite some technical weakness, 2025 has been a big year for Ethereum.

The Pectra upgrade went live in the first half of the year. The goal? Make the network faster and more efficient, especially for Layer‑2 scaling. Notably, you could see the impact both on-chain and on the charts.

After the launch on the 7th of May, ETH shot up 40% in just three days, reclaiming $2,500 for the first time since early March. Even with all the FUD since then, ETH is still around 38% higher than its pre-upgrade level.

Source: TradingView (ETH/USDT)

To put that into perspective, Bitcoin [BTC] is trading roughly 10% below the $95k range it was in during that same period, marking a pretty clear sign of ETH’s relative outperformance, even if it has been trailing BTC so far in Q4.

In simple terms, the launch marked a real inflection point. 

Ethereum’s daily transactions (7DMA) were around 1.25 million before the upgrade, and by mid-August that number had climbed to roughly 1.75 million, with active addresses jumping by 243k over the same stretch.

Ethereum upgrade arrives amid strong on-chain conditions

The Fusaka upgrade will boost Ethereum on both the front and backend.

On the backend, Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS) lets nodes verify blocks without downloading all the data, and increased block data capacity allows more transactions per block. 

For example, the gas limit is increasing from 45 million to 60 million to handle more throughput. On the user side, it’s good news. ETH’s average gas price has dropped to just 0.04 Gwei, making transactions cheaper.

Source: EtherScan

In short, Ethereum upgrade is dropping in at a time when network activity is lighter and fees are low. Just like the Pectra upgrade, it could give on-chain activity a solid boost on top of an already favorable setup.

Looking ahead, a mid-year–style rally can’t be ruled out. 

In fact, the dip at $2,800 could be a strong buying opportunity, especially with the Ethereum upgrade strengthening on-chain fundamentals at a time when institutional interest in ETH is at all-time highs.

Institutional backing meets network upgrades

In a network as dominant as Ethereum, upgrades don’t happen in isolation.

With $65 billion in TVL, a $168 billion stablecoin market, $442 billion in bridged TVL, and over 1,670 protocols (all sitting on top of a $340+ billion market cap), Ethereum clearly leads the DeFi space.

That means any major Ethereum upgrade could kickstart a broader market frenzy. Case in point: 26 publicly listed companies already hold ETH, topping all L1s, while Solana [SOL] comes in second with 18.

Source: CoinGecko

In simple terms, institutional interest tends to follow strong fundamentals.

Take BitMine. The firm holds 3% of ETH supply, and recently boosted holdings from 54k to 69k ETH.

What’s more, Tom Lee targets 5% and plans a validator network in Q1 2026, aiming for $500 million in staking revenue.

With this level of backing, Ethereum upgrades like the upcoming Fusaka could further strengthen ETH’s treasury profile.

In this light, the current market setup reinforces the strategy: “Buy the fear while others panic sell.”

Final Thoughts

• The Fusaka upgrade arrives when network activity is light and fees are low, potentially boosting on-chain activity like the Pectra upgrade did.
• Strong institutional backing reinforces ETH’s fundamentals and creates potential buying opportunities around $2,800.