Marc Arjoon

Sam Schubert

This is a segment from the 0xResearch newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">subscribe</a>.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Today markets leaned decisively risk-on, with crypto leading the move while traditional assets stayed muted. Ethereum’s Fusaka upgrade arrived with PeerDAS, BPO hard forks, and the under-discussed EIP-7918, which together may finally restore deflationary pressure on ETH. On the thematic front, Sui is making an aggressive full-stack push into robotics, positioning onchain coordination, settlement and telemetry as critical primitives for a coming wave of real-world machines.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Indices</h2>



Markets leaned firmly risk-on, with crypto broadly outperforming traditional assets. BTC (+5.8%) sat mid-pack, while equities were muted. The S&amp;P 500 (+0.3%) and Nasdaq 100 (+0.9%) barely budged. Gold (-0.3%) slipped, and crypto miners were the clear outlier to the downside (-8.7%), suggesting profit-taking and sensitivity to BTC’s consolidation.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="900" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-29.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-110222" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-29.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-29.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-29.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-29.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-29.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-29.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-29.png?w=464 464w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-29.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-29.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



The crypto sector breadth was exceptionally strong. Oracles, lending and the broader Ethereum ecosystem led the board, signaling a clear rotation back into core infrastructure and high-utilization protocols. DeFi, Modular, the Solana ecosystem, and perps followed close behind with similarly solid showings, pointing to broad appetite for beta across liquid alt sectors. Lower down the stack, L2s, AI plays, launchpads and gaming tokens all moved higher, while more speculative areas like memes lagged. The only clear pockets of weakness were crypto equities and miners especially, which saw meaningful pullbacks.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="900" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-27.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-110218" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-27.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-27.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-27.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-27.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-27.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-27.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-27.png?w=464 464w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-27.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-27.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



The move fits with improving sentiment as macro headwinds ease. Yields stabilized, liquidity indicators firmed, and positioning metrics suggest investors are adding risk after a muted stretch. Strong rebounds in infra sectors imply expectations for higher onchain activity and potential catalysts from upcoming protocol upgrades. Looking ahead, attention turns to macro prints later this week, which could test the durability of this risk-on tone. Volatility remains compressed, but with crypto sector dispersion widening, traders should expect sharper rotations as narratives evolve.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Market update&nbsp;</h2>



Today is Fusaka day in Ethereum land, the second upgrade this year (the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-pectra-fork-live">Pectra hard fork</a> was in May). It’s not often that Ethereum has two upgrades in one year, and that’s because Fusaka is more of a half-upgrade. Over a dozen EIPs were removed after <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-consensus-evm-upgrade-fusaka-devs">EOF was mothballed</a> in April.



Of the 12 EIPs remaining, PeerDAS, is the most significant, according to Gabriel Trintinalia, protocol engineer at Consensys.



&#8220;During the initial development of the Fusaka upgrade, any feature that carried a risk of delaying the fork, such as those requiring more research or having high complexity, was deprioritized and removed from the scope,&#8221; Trintinalia told Blockworks.



PeerDAS introduces <a href="https://ethereum.org/developers/docs/data-availability/">data availability sampling</a>, which allows validators to share the load of blobs, effectively allowing for an increase in blobs per block. There is one upgrade being overlooked, but first, some background:&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="900" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-28.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-110219" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-28.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-28.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-28.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-28.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-28.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-28.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-28.png?w=464 464w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-28.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-28.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



Blobs have failed to hit their target of six per block, and just when it looked like they were about to, Ethereum is looking to raise the target again. Technically, Fusaka will not be raising the blob target, but is instead introducing <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-fusaka-dec3-launch">Blob Parameter Only</a> (BPO) hard forks. This creates a separate and easier process to adjust blob storage parameters. So instead of waiting for a major upgrade, Ethereum can make smaller, more frequent adjustments to blob capacity.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1124" height="624" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-25.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-110216" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-25.png?w=1124 1124w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-25.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-25.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-25.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-25.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-25.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-25.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-25.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1124px) 100vw, 1124px" /></figure>



The larger point still stands: With supply exceeding demand, the blob gas price has been largely immaterial (apart from a few blips here and there when the blob price reached a measly 1 gwei).&nbsp; 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1124" height="624" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-30.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-110224" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-30.png?w=1124 1124w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-30.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-30.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-30.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-30.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-30.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-30.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-30.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1124px) 100vw, 1124px" /></figure>



Post-Pectra, between June and October, Ethereum generated around $900 in blob fees. The brief spike in November brought this to ~$23,000. Still not material, but it highlighted the order-of-magnitude difference when blobs actually have a market.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1124" height="624" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-24.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-110215" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-24.png?w=1124 1124w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-24.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-24.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-24.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-24.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-24.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-24.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-24.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1124px) 100vw, 1124px" /></figure>



This is why <a href="https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-7918">EIP-7918</a> needs more attention. It addresses the blob fee market problem by introducing a reserve price tied to execution costs (a floor price of sorts). When L2 execution costs dominate blob costs, this prevents the blob fee market from becoming ineffective at 1 wei. For example, as shown below, if EIP-7918 was introduced on June 1, 2025, burnt blob fees would have been nearly 8x more. The upgrade isn’t only a reserve pricing model, it also presents more price stability and predictability, avoiding dramatic fee spikes when the blob market becomes inelastic.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="917" height="445" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-26.png" alt="" class="wp-image-110217" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-26.png?w=917 917w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-26.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-26.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-26.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-26.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-26.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-26.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 917px) 100vw, 917px" /></figure>



Together with PeerDAS and BPO, this suggests that as Ethereum scales L2 capacity, blob fees should go up as well (historically, this relationship has been strictly inverse). For ETH holders, this, combined with L1 scaling, can hopefully return the ETH supply to a deflationary phase.



Updated Dec. 4, 2025 at 2:12 am ET: Clarified comment



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/the-breakdown">The Breakdown</a>: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch">0xResearch</a>: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst. </li>
</ul>

0xResearch Newsletter

Ethereum’s Fusaka upgrade lands today

Blockworks

Ethereum core developers have confirmed that the Fusaka upgrade will activate on December 3, marking the network’s next major protocol milestone aimed at scaling throughput and reducing costs.



The upgrade will roll out after testnet deployments on Holesky, Sepolia, and Hoodi in October. In parallel, the Ethereum Foundation launched a $2 million Fusaka audit <a href="https://blog.ethereum.org/2025/09/15/fusaka-audit-content">contest</a> on Sept. 15, co‑sponsored by Gnosis and Lido and hosted on Sherlock, which will run for four weeks to identify potential vulnerabilities before mainnet activation.



The December mainnet date reflects <a href="https://etherworld.co/2025/09/19/highlights-from-the-all-core-developers-consensus-acdc-call-165/">discussions</a> during All Core Developers Consensus (ACDC) Call #165, where developers agreed Fusaka could go live no earlier than 30 days after the Hoodi testnet fork.



Fusaka introduces Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS) through EIP‑7594, a mechanism allowing nodes to verify only parts of large data blobs rather than the entire dataset. This reduces bandwidth strain and helps scale blob storage, which underpins layer‑2 rollup efficiency.







<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="889" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-138.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-108040" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-138.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-138.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-138.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-138.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-138.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-138.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-138.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-138.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-138.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Ethereum Blob Utilization | Blockworks Research</figcaption></figure>



Blockworks Research data shows blob utilization currently averages above 90% for major rollups, with Arbitrum One at 99.6% and OP Mainnet at 99.2%. Median blob fees range from $0.49–$3.05 per MiB, highlighting tight capacity. Fusaka’s BPO forks aim to ease this saturation by expanding blob limits, supporting sustained throughput without pricing out rollups.



Following Fusaka’s activation, Ethereum will deploy two Blob Parameter Only (BPO) forks. The first, scheduled for around December 17, will increase maximum blob counts from 9 to 15; the second, planned for January 7, 2026, will raise the ceiling to 21. These lightweight forks adjust blob parameters without requiring client updates, <a href="https://x.com/christine_dkim/status/1968764433439596728">according</a> to Ethereum researcher Christine Kim.



This is a developing story.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/the-breakdown">The Breakdown</a>: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch">0xResearch</a>: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst. </li>
</ul>