Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan believes Ethereum could lead the next crypto rally, highlighting an upgrade catalyst that investors are overlooking.
Summary
- Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan says Ethereum could lead the next crypto rally with the Fusaka upgrade.
- The December 3 Fusaka upgrade introduces minimum Layer 2 data charges for revenue capture.
- Hougan sees tokens moving toward value capture with Uniswap offering a fee-switching model.
The Fusaka upgrade scheduled for December 3 could increase Ethereum revenue by 5-10x through minimum layer 2 data fees.
Hougan says the market is missing a broader trend: major tokens are rapidly moving toward better value capture. Uniswap (UNI) is moving towards a fee change that would burn around 16% of trading fees, while the XRP (XRP) community explores staking options.
New regulations are moving tokens away from vague governance models and toward direct economic benefits for holders.
Fusaka Upgrade Aims for Layer 2 Efficiency
The Fusaka hard fork will activate on December 3, 2025 at 21:49:11 UTC on block 13,164,544 of the Ethereum (ETH) mainnet. Core developers finalized the schedule after successful testing on the Holesky, Sepolia, and Hoodi testnets.
Fusaka introduces Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS), which allows validators to confirm the availability of transaction data by sampling small chunks rather than downloading entire blobs of data.
The technology makes Layer 2 rollup operations faster, cheaper, and more efficient while reducing bandwidth requirements.
The upgrade increases the gas block limit from 45 million to 150 million. Each block will be able to accommodate more transactions, smart contracts and data-intensive applications.
Hougan wrote on
“I suspect the market will soon start to shift towards the positive impacts of Fusaka, particularly if it is delivered on December 3 as planned,” he said.
Tokens move from governance to economic value
Uniswap’s proposed fee change would burn around 16% of trading fees if the vote passes. “I believe this will push UNI to become a top 10 token by market cap over time,” Hougan wrote.
This change would move UNI from a simple symbol of governance to a model offering direct economic benefits.
The XRP community is evaluating staking mechanisms that would change the economics of token holders. Hougan sees this as part of a model in which tokens implement value-capturing features.
Bitwise’s CIO predicts this shift will become apparent in 2026. “The level of value capture in digital assets only increases from there. I think people think of token value capture as static. That’s not the case,” he wrote.
Hougan described the Fusaka upgrade as “an underappreciated catalyst and one of the reasons why ETH could lead the crypto rebound.”
