A multimillion-dollar Ethereum transaction was confirmed on the blockchain, while at the same time, traders in New York watched the candlestick chart repeatedly hitting $3200 without success. The fervor brought by the technical upgrade and the cold reality of fund flows were playing out in a silent game.
From December 3 to 4, Ethereum successfully implemented a major network upgrade codenamed 'Fusaka'.
The core of this upgrade lies in the introduction of PeerDAS (Peer Data Availability Sampling) technology, which is expected to ultimately increase the data throughput of Layer 2 networks by up to 8 times and significantly reduce users' transaction costs.
However, in contrast to the positive technicals, the market's funding and price performance appear hesitant. As of December 3, the trading price of ETH was approximately $3,077, rebounding over 17% from the low of November 21, but repeatedly facing setbacks at the key resistance level of $3,200.
01 Price and Market Tug-of-War
Recently, Ethereum's market signals have presented a complex and contradictory picture. On one hand, prices show resilient recovery, bouncing back from a low of $2,620 in late November. On-chain data shows that some large investors, often referred to as 'whales,' have been continuously accumulating in the $2,950 to $3,050 range.
The sentiment in the derivatives market has also rebounded, with over $700 million in long positions building a defense around $2,960, and the funding rate turning positive.
On the other hand, a powerful countercurrent is offsetting these positive signals. The most critical shift comes from institutional and corporate funds. Data shows that corporate finance departments' demand for purchasing Ethereum has plummeted.
The previously popular trend of 'digital asset treasury' is rapidly cooling. In November, related companies purchased only 370,000 ETH, a staggering 81% drop compared to the peak of 1.97 million in August.
02 The Breakthrough Battle of Technical Upgrades
Market doubts about price partly stem from concerns about Ethereum's long-term scalability and cost issues. The Fusaka upgrade is precisely aimed at addressing this core pain point.
It includes a series of EIP proposals, among which the most critical is the PeerDAS technology.
Under the existing mechanism, Layer 2 networks package data into 'blobs' and send them back to the Ethereum mainnet for settlement. To ensure data availability, each network validator needs to download and verify the entire content of the blob.
This model has become inefficient and expensive with the prosperity of Layer 2, as blob space utilization often approaches saturation, becoming a bottleneck that limits network development.
The innovation of PeerDAS lies in the introduction of the concept of 'sampling.' Validators do not need to download the entire blob; they only need to randomly check a small portion of the data slices and complete the verification collaboratively through a peer-to-peer network.
This method significantly reduces the computational and bandwidth requirements on individual nodes while ensuring security.
In addition, the upgrade also includes other important improvements: increasing the block gas limit from 45 million to 60 million to enhance the mainnet's single block processing capability; introducing a base price mechanism for blob transactions to stabilize the fee market.
03 Technical Analysis and Future Outlook
Faced with complex market information, traders and technical analysts are trying to find direction from charts.
In the short term, $3,200 is widely seen as a key dividing line between bulls and bears. If an effective breakthrough at the daily level can be achieved, it will open further upward space for prices.
Analysts point out that the ETH/USD trading chart shows it has broken the upper boundary of the 'descending wedge' pattern. The theoretical target for this technical breakout points to around $4,150.
Several analytical institutions have predicted the price path of Ethereum for the coming weeks, generally believing that the market will maintain high volatility before the end of the year, but the central tendency is expected to rise.
The future direction of the market will depend on the actual effects of technical upgrades, the macro-financial environment, and the resonance of whether institutional funds can flow back.$ETH 
