Ethereum has entered a new phase of consolidation around $3,078, but the broader ecosystem appears to be heating up faster than the price suggests. While Bitcoin’s volatility has dominated market sentiment, Ethereum’s Layer-2 networks have quietly taken over the majority of transaction activity across the ecosystem. With L2s now processing more transactions than Ethereum itself and a major upgrade planned for early December, the foundation for the next ETH price rally may already be forming beneath the surface.
Layer 2 networks are now driving Ethereum activity
Ethereum’s Layer-2 networks have become the main driver of activity across the ecosystem, processing more transactions than the base layer itself. These solutions reduce costs, increase throughput, and enable faster settlements, allowing developers and users to efficiently scale applications without congestion. This shift highlights how Ethereum’s growth is increasingly L2-driven, even if the ETH price has not yet fully reflected this.
Important statistics in the chain
- Daily active addresses: Stable and not showing a major drop in user activity
- Post-merger ETH supply: remains neutral to slightly deflationary
- Transaction costs: lower than Q1 to Q3 2024 levels, improving network usage conditions
- L2 gas consumption: Consistently increasing, due to heavy rollup use
- Developer Activity: Among the highest in smart contract networks
- L2s now process over 58.5% of all Ethereum ecosystem transactions.
- Total L2 TVL grew to $43.3 billion, an increase of 36.7% year over year.
Several major L2 networks are leading this increase, including Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, zkSync, and Starknet, each processing millions of transactions every day. Their growing adoption reflects Ethereum’s scaling progress and underlines why L2 growth could be the catalyst for the next ETH price rally.
Upcoming Ethereum Upgrade: Fusaka Activation on December 3, 2025
Ethereum’s next major upgrade, Fusaka, is scheduled for December 3, 2025 and aims to further improve network efficiency and Layer-2 scalability. This upgrade introduces PeerDAS blob sampling, improved data processing for rollups, and optimizations for BPO forks, all designed to reduce congestion and costs on L2 networks.
Expected effects:
- 40%-60% reduction in Layer-2 data costs, making transactions cheaper for end users and developers.
- Higher rollup throughput means more transactions per second and smoother network operations.
- Faster settlement confirmation on L2s, strengthening Ethereum’s role as a foundation layer for scalable applications.
Historically, Ethereum upgrades such as EIP-1559 and Dencun have led to increased on-chain activity and positive price movements over the medium term. Fusaka could similarly act as a catalyst, strengthening Ethereum’s L2 ecosystem and potentially providing momentum for ETH’s next price surge.
Ethereum price stabilizes above USD 3000
After recovering from local lows near $2700, ETH price has not only managed to rise above $3000 but also managed to hold the range. The price rises even in times of low liquidity, indicating that the bulls will overwhelm the bears in the short term. However, a breakout above $3150 could confirm a reversal, but technicals remain neutral at the moment.
The ETH price is starting to recover, which may seem like the beginning of a recovery phase, but the major challenge remains. The 50/200-day MA is about to undergo a bearish crossover called the ‘death cross’ that will have a huge negative impact on the rally. Previously, in March, this caused a 45% pullback, and if this is now validated, it is feared that the ETH price will fall to $3,350. However, the RSI remains high; Therefore, Ethereum price could remain in a consolidation phase for a while.
Despite the recovery, market sentiment remains fearful. Moreover, the power behind Ethereum lies in the L2S and the upcoming upgrade. Therefore, we must wait and see how the next ETH price action will unfold as a rise to $2500, which is a key resistance, could shed light on the path to $5000.
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