Ethereum surged to a three-week high of $3,230 on Thursday as large holders accelerated accumulation following the blockchain's Fusaka upgrade. The price level marks the highest since mid-November, with network growth hitting 190,000 new wallets in a single day.
What Happened: Upgrade Deployment
Santiment reported Thursday that wallets holding between 1,000 and 10,000 ETH drove the asset's price climb. These "shark wallets" have served as a key indicator of Ether's price movements throughout 2025, the on-chain analytics platform said.
The price movement follows Wednesday's deployment of the Fusaka upgrade on the Ethereum mainnet. "Fusaka went well, and L2s posting blobs without missing a beat," said Terence Tsao, an Ethereum developer. "Credit to all the teams. L1 and L2s are running as one well-oiled machine that moves forward together."
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Why It Matters: Technical Momentum
The upgrade represents a significant technical milestone for Ethereum's scaling roadmap. Fusaka introduces higher layer-1 performance, expanded blob capacity and lower rollup costs through its PeerDAS feature, which allows validators to verify data through sampling rather than downloading entire blobs.
Ryan Sean Adams from Bankless noted the achievement.
"Two major Ethereum upgrades this year is a huge win," he said. "I haven't seen builder momentum this strong since the Merge in 2022."
Tom Lee through BitMine Immersion Technologies purchased $150 million worth of Ether on Wednesday, Arkham Intelligence reported Thursday. Two wallets withdrew $92 million from Kraken and $58 million from Bitgo, matching previous BitMine purchase patterns. The firm now holds at least 3.73 million ETH valued at approximately $12 billion after making its third purchase this week.
Analyst Ted Pillows observed that the ETH/BTC ratio was attempting to reclaim the 50-week exponential moving average. "If that happens, ETH and altcoins could see upward momentum," he said. Ether has recovered 16% from its dip to $2,740 earlier this week during a leverage flush. Bitcoin recovered 10% from its Tuesday low to $83,500 in comparison.
The asset traded at $3,200 after briefly touching the $3,230 high during Asian trading hours Thursday.
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