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Author:Max Wadington, Fidelity Digital Asset Research Team
Ethereum’s strategic adjustment
FusakaThe upgrade marks a key moment in Ethereum’s evolution, introducing a roadmap guided by clear strategic priorities.
This shift marks the maturity of Ethereum’s governance, which is moving away from a decentralized decision-making model toward a more coordinated and purposeful protocol development process.
Ethereum’s development roadmap has historically reflected the views of its broad range of stakeholdersDiversificationPriorities.While this diversity is an advantage, it often results in a lack of uniformity in upgrades.focus.However, withFusakaWith the introduction of the upgrade, this situation is changing.
Ethereum history,For the first time, there is an upgrade led by a leaner, more unified set of strategic initiatives.This adjustment reflects the focus on scalability, ease of use, and——Perhaps the most important——There is a growing consensus on value accumulation.
Although value accumulation is not explicitly listed as a core initiative, it is undoubtedly the most widely recognized goal of the Ethereum community.This shared incentive structure closely connects developers and investors and appears to be increasingly influencing protocol-level decisions.
Fidelity Digital Assets Research Team believes that Ethereum’s transformation to a rational, cash flow-oriented development model may be its mostattractive narrative.
However, this transformation is also accompanied by a series ofInvestors should pay close attention toTrade-offs.
FusakastrategyCollaboration
FusakaThe upgrade reflects Ethereum’s focused efforts to align its development with newly developed strategic initiatives.To better illustrate this, the following improvement proposal is based on Ethereum(EIP)with key prioritiesconsistency,It is classified.
someEIPIt involves many areas, but this only highlights the need for centralized upgrades.From a macro perspective, based on the total number of relevant changes,Layer 1Expansion seems to have become a top priority, which marks a major shift in Ethereum roadmap priorities.
ExpandLayer 2Arguably the most complex change in this upgrade,PeerDASandEIP-7918This is highlighted:BlobThe base fee is subject to execution costs.
It’s worth noting that nearly every item in this upgradeEIPIt is possible forEthereumHolders bring more benefits.
Fidelity Digital Assets Research Team believes that this upgrade is mainly based on economic sustainability and investor relevance, both of which will help improve investment prospects.
Value accumulation: an emerging theme
Ethereum’s strategic moves may evolve Ethereum into a platform capable of creating meaningful economic value for Ethereum holders.
ExpandLayer 1It is the top priority among the three core measures.Because it has particularly significant value-added potential.Layer 1The transaction isEthereumInvestors bring much more value thanLayer 2transaction, which meansLayer 1Increased activity may result inEthereumHolders bring greater value.
FusakaMarking Ethereum’sRollupThere has been a strategic shift in the centric roadmap:Developer nowstart simultaneouslyPrioritizeLayer 1andLayer 2expansion,And pay more attention to long-term profit income.
BelowEIPYesLayer1valueThe core of:
Together, these changes elevate Ethereum’s most valuable product:Layer 1block space.By increasing throughput and enhancing predictability, they provide more stableandScalability lays the foundation for value capture.
toRollupCentered Roadmap: Turning Points
FusakaThe upgrade marks the beginning of Ethereum’sRollupcentric roadmap reaches a critical turning point, especially in how the protocol handles data availability andLayer 2economic mechanism.
Although Ethereum has long emphasizedRollupsis its preferred expansion solution, butFusakaintroduced significant changes,more directlywillLayer 2The usage is tied to Ethereum.
Historically, data availability has been essentially a subsidized product.Layer 2platformThe expenses incurred mainly come fromLayer 2serversubmitted withBlobtransmitted togetherLayer 1Transaction.
directly fromBlobThe cost of data depends entirely onBlobsupply and demand relationship.Therefore, as developers increaseBlobof supply, the fee for the product drops to zero and tends to remain zero for long periods of time.In addition,Layer 2platformSeveral strategies have been implemented to take advantage of thisthis isolated market, as low as possibleBlobcost.
EIP-7918introduceBlobGasGuaranteed price for fees.This mechanism is designed toPrevent periods of low demand from occurringBlobThe price is too low.AlthoughThis changeThe core reason is to optimize from a technical levelBlobfee market, but it alsoobjectivelystrengthenedLayer 2Usage vs.BlobThe economic link between fee income.
EIP-7918Yesin data availability(DA)in the marketdirectDemonstrate pricing poweran attempt, and may become Ethereum’sRollupcenter road mapimportantturning point.
Our analysis compares historicalBlobFee revenue versus a conservatively adjusted model that enforcesLayer 1 gascost minimum fee),ComeAssessmentEIP-7918may bringFee revenue impact.
It estimates if sinceDeneb-CancunUpgrade introductionBlobThis mechanism has been effective sinceEthereumAdditional income that holders may receive (estimatedrevenue increase).
The peak in the estimated income gap shows that after adjustmentBlobprice higher thanactually observedofBlobprice, the reason may beLayer 1costlhigh, oris more commonBlobBase fee is zero or close to zerosituation.
As of2025year10month28day, our analysis shows that since2024yearDeneb-CancunSince the upgrade,93%On days, the adjusted fee will be higher than the actual fee.This will cumulatively yield approx.78,646,739USD (24,641 ETH) additional income.This amount includes from2025year5month7dayPrague-Electragenerated since the upgrade9,793,737USD (3,037 ETH).These findingshighlightedEIP-7918economic significance and its potential to improve fee stability and network sustainability.
Point-to-point data availability sampling (PeerDAS)
PeerDASby addingBlobData is dispersed to multiple nodes and their availability is jointly verified, significantly increasing the number ofBlobQuantity.Currently, each node must download allBlobdata and verify it yourself.The upgrade is designed to decentralize the verification work, thereby reducing the overall amount of data each node needs to process.
PassCombine node resources for the same task, developers can optimize the amount of data processed by each node without compromising product quality or security.Therefore, within the next year there will beBlobsupplyincrease10times are considered feasible.The developers have agreed to change the number of each block within one month after the upgradeBlobquantity increased to10Gehe14but have not confirmed anyextraincrease.
willBlobFurther increases in supply are consistent with the previously demonstratedBlobGuaranteed feeCombined, it can beBlobTransformed from a subsidized utility to potentially available to all Ethereum holders,Scalable revenue streams.
The table above illustrates this situation.BlobcostMechanicalAdjustment and each blockBlobQuantityofIncrease the combination,highlightedThese two itemsEIPpotentialSignificant impact on revenue.All values are annualized revenue estimates in U.S. dollars.
“annual observations“Column usage historyBlobcost (mean or median), while“annual adjusted value“columns apply the adjustedBlobcost, assumingEIP-7918Already in variousBlobImplemented under supply scenario.The Ethereum price used for USD conversion is3,984US dollars (as of2025year10month28day).
It is worth noting that when using the observedBlobMedian cost regardless ofBlobRegardless of the quantity, the annual income is always zero.This highlights the twoEIPcomplementarity: they are not only stable based onBlobincome, which can also enable it to followBlobScales significantly with increased throughput.
The trade-off that investors must be aware of is that some of the additional income earned by Ethereum investors comes fromLayer 2Profit for the platform and its users.Although this may hinder some newLayer 2The launch of the project also shows that Ethereum’sDAproduct (Blobs) may be maturing into a profitable asset.
With EthereumBlobThe cost of digital assets increases(DA)Competition is likely to intensify.Based on the Fidelity Digital Asset Research Team’s analysis ofEIP-7918For the analysis, we calculated eachBlobincreasedLayer 2extraCost:
78,646,738USD (additional estimated revenue)/13,057,849(fromDeneb-CancunsinceBlobquantity)≈6.02US dollarseachBlobincreasedAdditional costs.
Assuming that there is this additional cost,Layer 2most activeBase,Assume the commit rate is hourly580aBlob, and eachBlobThe additional costs are as mentioned above,expectedwillPaying Ethereum holders approx.3060Thousands of dollars in additional costs.For reference,Basepaid in the past yearBlobThe total cost is520million dollars, while its userstransactionFee income is approximately9400million dollars.
This itemAnalysis shows that the trade-off between value accumulation and scale expansion is nottrivial matter, and leads to the core questions:
Does Ethereum have enough liquidity and network effects to overcomeLayer 2What additional costs are faced by the platform and its users?orthemIs there an increasing shift towards more cost-effectiveDAOptions?
Fidelity Digital Assets Research Team believes that Ethereum’s liquidity and network effects can clearlyLayer 2platformBring value.However, this additional cost may hinder emergingLayer 2The evolution of platforms, or more specifically, forcing themLet users bear higher prices.
Layer 2Evolution and based onverifier’sRollupThe rise of
Except forLayer 1and major upgrades in data availability,Fusakaalso introducedMany improvements, if these changes can have a lasting impact, they may lead to greater demand and higher value accumulation over a longer time frame.specificLet’s talk, these changes can improve mobile user experience and promoteMore based on pre-confirmation mechanismRollupsbe adopted.
Based onverifier’sRollup: A new value accumulation model
EIP-7917A deterministic proposer foreknowledge mechanism is introduced, allowing validators and users to know in advance which validator is proposing which block.theChange supportWider application scenarios,enable validator-basedRollupAbility to use pre-confirmation mechanismandGet resultsGuaranteed.
Based onverifier’sRollupis a kind ofLayer 2A blockchain whose transactions are organized (ordered) by Ethereum validators.Pre-confirmation is an Ethereum validator pairLayer 2Commitments made by users.This commitment guaranteesLayer 2User transactions are included in blocks ordered by Ethereum validators that support pre-confirmation.
validator-basedRollupCombined with the pre-confirmation mechanism,Eliminatedsingle sequencerdependency, makingLayer 2The network can inherit the decentralized and censorship-resistant properties of Ethereum.This is different from most currentLayer 2This is a far cry from the current situation where networks still use a single sequencer and rely on other mechanisms to prevent malicious activity.
From the perspective of institutional investors,validator-basedRollupIt has the following advantages:
1.MEVand pre-confirmationmechanismTo Ethereum validatorsto prompt:RollupReliance on Ethereum validators for block processing and transaction ordering, hence these market-related valueswill flow toLayer 1, rather than inLayer 2ofsortThe level iscapture.
2. Greater data usage:Based onverifier’sRollupNeed to be sorted better than a singleLayer 2More metadata, thus addingBlobConsumption and related revenue.
3. Security and user experience are improved:Users can enjoy faster confirmation speeds (comparable to existing single sequencers) and stronger censorship resistance guarantees, which may drive greater user adoption of the technology.
as well knownRollupteamTaiko LabsAs pointed out,“You no longer have to choose between decentralization and ease of use.The pre-confirmation mechanism gives you the best of both worlds.“
All existingRollupAll switched to based onvalidatormodel seems unlikely.However, if the user clearly prefers to use a pre-confirmation mechanism based onvalidatorofRollup, it may give rise to a new round of expansion plans, thereby directly improving Ethereum’sEthereumvalue and bring higher returns to stakers.
Although still in its early stages, based onverifier’sRollupOnce the technology succeeds, it may fundamentally change EthereumLayer 2The economic landscape of ecosystems.ifRollupAs technology becomes more popular, Ethereum holders willfrom increasedtrading volume andBlobhandling feemedium income, at the same time, due toRollupassumedLayer 2With the role of transaction sorting, staking income will also increase.
This design aligns with Ethereum’s long-term goal of decentralizing while monetizing core servicesLayer 2infrastructure.For investors, it introduces a new path to value accumulation, with a focus on scalingLayer 1The ideas of the network complement each other.
What investors should evaluate
FusakaThe upgrade marks an important strategic and economic turning point for Ethereum.For investors, thismeansEthereum is evolving into a platform with profitable infrastructure, pricingcapabilities and have a platform aligned with a roadmap for long-term value creation.
Core investment themes
Layer 1Expansion is the most direct way to achieve value accumulation
FusakaThe product with the greatest value-added potential of EthereumLayer 1Block space comes first.throughput,gasImprovements in efficiency and execution capabilities will directly enhance Ethereum’s usage and destruction capabilities.
dataAvailability monetization
EIP-7918introducedBlobThe lower limit of handling fees, so that in EthereumDAestablished pricing power.combinePeerDAS,This is expected toBlobTranslate into a scalable revenue stream, especially inBlobsupply growth,Layer 2while continuing to rely on Ethereum as its foundation for security and liquidity.
LayereconomyPatternis changing
higherBlobCosts may be compressedLayer 2profit margin or increaseLayer 2Cost to users, but may also solidify Ethereum as the first choiceDAProvider dominance.Based onverifier’sRollupand pre-confirmation mechanisms may further shift transaction processing to Ethereum validator nodes, thereby improving allEthereumThe staking income and value accumulation of holders.
user experienceOptimize to drive adoption
EIP-7951and-7917Improved Ethereum integration with mobile infrastructure andimprovedLayer 2responseexperience, potentially driving wider adoption and more on-chain activity.
From speculation to fundamentals
FusakaRedefining Ethereum’s roadmapatSustainable value accumulation.For investors, this opens the door to valuation models based on usage, revenue and protocol-level economics.
Conclusion
FusakaUpgrade indication,The agreement is optimizing its products, enhancing pricing power,and coordinate incentive mechanisms for various stakeholders.For investors, this is arguably the most attractive upgrade in recent years,and possiblyMarking Ethereum ascan producecash flow,HaveEconomically sustainablesexualassets,A new era has begun.
Links:https://www.fidelitydigitalassets.com/research-and-insights/fusaka-upgrade-scaling-meets-value-accrual
