With Fusaka's November 2025 upgrade and major transformation planned for 2026 approaching, the market is presenting both opportunities and potential risks.
Ethereum is entering a key phase of development, where several factors are converging: major technical upgrades, regulatory clarity, and growing institutional attention. The market is showing both new opportunities and potential risks ahead of the Fusaka upgrade in November 2025 and the major changes planned for 2026.
Protocol evolution: a bet on scalability Ethereum’s roadmap is built on an incremental combination of operational improvements and long-term solutions. The Fusaka upgrade, scheduled for November 5–12, 2025, includes eleven Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) focused on the network’s infrastructure. Unlike the Pectra upgrade in May, the focus is on fundamental mechanisms.
The key innovation will be EIP-7594 with the introduction of PeerDAS (Peer Data Availability Sampling), which will significantly reduce the costs of second-layer solutions. Additionally, the fee cap will increase from about 45 million to 150 million, which should improve the efficiency of rollup products like Arbitrum and Optimism. All this fits into the Ethereum strategy, where Layer 1 acts as a settlement layer, and the transaction load is transferred to Layer 2.
The plans for 2026 are even more ambitious. The Lean Ethereum Plan assumes reaching 10 thousand transactions per second on Layer 1 and over 1 million TPS on Layer 2. The implementation of zkEVM will allow validators to verify blocks through cryptographic proofs, rather than re-executing transactions.
Institutional Capital and Market Dynamics The regulatory framework in the US works in favor of Ethereum. In July 2025, the SEC confirmed that ETH is not a security, paving the way for ETFs with staking. BlackRock and other management structures already control $22.93 billion in ETH assets. In July alone, the inflow of funds amounted to $2.85 billion, which indicates high demand from institutional investors.
JPMorgan is also migrating some projects from private to public Ethereum networks, reflecting the trend of institutional integration.
Technical Analysis and Market Sentiment The current dynamics confirm a reversal to the bullish trend. The breakout of the long-term descending channel has increased optimism, and the targets are the levels of $4900 and $5500. ETH's 74% growth over the past three months indicates strong buying pressure, although the RSI divergence and the formation of lower local highs indicate the risk of overheating.
The $4300 level is considered a key support. Losing this level may lead to a decline to $4200 and below. On the contrary, consolidation above $4900 can trigger a move to new historical highs.
Risks and Competition Despite strong fundamental factors, Ethereum faces risks. Solana strengthens its position in the real-world asset tokenization market ($270 billion), threatening Ethereum's dominance (55%). Increasing the fee cap could put a strain on small validators and increase centralization.
Ethereum's modular approach provides flexibility, but makes it more difficult to develop and deploy applications.
Key Events
- Fusaka testnet results in September 2025;
- SEC staking rules finalized;
- Balance between scalability, decentralization, and security;
- Integration of AI tokens like Worldcoin, which recently gained 55%.
At the same time, Ethereum is preparing the ground for new DeFi products, including Zexpire.
Zexpire: A New Format of Crypto Options with Potential for Mass Demand The crypto options market is one of the fastest-growing segments of decentralized finance today, with average daily trading volumes estimated at around $3 billion. It has long remained a niche instrument for professional participants, but now it has a chance to expand due to the retail audience.
Zexpire offers a simplified approach to options trading through the industry’s first 0DTE DeFi protocol. The one-click model allows the user to bet only on whether the price of an asset will remain within a specified range or break out of it within 24 hours. The risks are limited to the bet amount only: there are no margin calls or cascading liquidations, making the product understandable and accessible even for beginners.
$ZX Token Economy The protocol is supported by the native $ZX token, which plays several roles at once:
- a means of managing the ecosystem,
- a tool for receiving discounts and cashback,
- a key element of the loyalty program.
Currently, $ZX is in the pre-sale stage at a price of $0.003, which is almost 800% lower than the announced listing price of $0.025. Additionally, staking rewards of up to 5% are provided before TGE, bonuses for loyal holders and access to beta testing.
The tokenomics provide for the burning of 20% of commissions and a buyback program, which creates a supply deficit and supports the long-term value of the asset.
Market Prospects Zexpire aims to occupy a niche of a mass product in the cryptocurrency derivatives market. Thanks to a simplified interface and fixed risks, the project is able to attract retail investors for whom the options market was previously too complicated.
If the project manages to realize its stated plans, ZX could become one of the notable tokens of the new cycle, receiving support from both the DeFi community and a wider audience.