Ethereum’s inflow of new addresses increased 110% in the wake of the Fusaka upgrade, as improved throughput and lower base-layer friction coincided with a clear pickup in on-chain participation. Our read is that the post-upgrade environment materially reduced execution friction and made activity easier to sustain.
Fusaka activated on December 3, 2025, introducing protocol-level changes aimed at improving data availability and proof efficiency. In our assessment, these protocol upgrades created the operating conditions that support faster settlement activity and renewed user onboarding.
What changed with Fusaka
Fusaka rolled out PeerDAS and Verkle Trees, two structural upgrades described as reducing node costs and improving cryptographic proof sizes. These changes matter because cheaper node operation and smaller proofs improve scalability and verification efficiency across the stack.
The upgrade also raised effective block gas capacity substantially, with figures cited as moving from about 45,000,000 to a potential 150,000,000 gas units. That increase expands throughput headroom and provides more capacity for both transactions and Layer-2 settlement flows.
Post-activation monitoring cited publicly puts Ethereum at roughly 292,000 new addresses per day after Fusaka, a datapoint that circulated through multiple channels. We treat that daily new-address pace as the most visible signal that participation strengthened immediately after the upgrade.
Market implications we’re watching
The same coverage links Fusaka’s throughput and data-availability improvements to projected fee declines on Layer-2s, with one estimate suggesting fees could fall by as much as 95% if gains materialize as designed. If that level of fee compression is realized, it would meaningfully lower the marginal cost of activity and reset on-chain unit economics.
Alongside the address growth, the core on-chain signals to track are sustained daily new-address creation and the network’s higher nominal transaction capacity. We view these as leading indicators that can precede deeper liquidity, higher transaction volume, and broader ecosystem engagement.
For traders and infrastructure teams, the operational takeaway is that expanded on-chain activity can translate into increased liquidity and hedging demand, while derivatives desks may monitor funding and open interest for signs of rotation into Ether. Our baseline is that the decisive proof point will be whether Layer-2 fees actually trend down and whether activity remains elevated after the initial post-upgrade surge.
