On the eve of a major technical upgrade, Ethereum has again attracted the attention of institutional investors.

On-chain data show that large-scale buying and price-supportive behaviour signal returning investor confidence after a volatile November. According to data from analyst Lookonchain, a wallet linked to BitMine received 21,537 ETH worth about USD 59.17 million from FalconX on 22 November. The transaction went through an OTC desk — a pattern typical of institutional buyers who first send a test transaction and then complete the main transfer.

According to various sources, Tom Lee, chairman of BitMine and co-founder of Fundstrat, continues to accumulate Ethereum during periods of market volatility. BitMine now holds about 3.5 million ETH worth more than USD 10 billion, making it one of the largest corporate holders of Ethereum. The company has not halted its buying strategy despite ETH falling from around USD 3,900 in early November to its current level of about USD 2,768.

In an interview with CNBC on 20 November, Tom Lee said the recent weakness stems from damage to market makers’ balance sheets after October’s liquidations, but cited Ethereum’s role in asset tokenisation and stablecoin infrastructure as supporting its long-term value.

The Fusaka upgrade on 3 December

Whale accumulation coincides with anticipation of the Fusaka upgrade on Ethereum mainnet, scheduled for 3 December 2025 at slot 13,164,544. With this upgrade:

  • The block gas limit rises from 45 million to 60 million units (with plans to raise it to 150 million later)
  • Transaction processing capacity increases
  • Network congestion at peak times decreases
  • Fees fall for layer-2 networks such as Arbitrum and zkSync

The upgrade includes 12 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), the most important being PeerDAS. According to Phemex, with PeerDAS validators check only parts of the data rather than entire data blobs, sharply reducing bandwidth requirements. Fusaka was successfully tested in October on the Holesky, Sepolia and Hoodi testnets. Historically, major Ethereum upgrades have delivered returns of 10–50% within one to six months; the Pectra upgrade in May 2025 led to a rise of around 50%.

Technical analysis and long-term targets

Ethereum is now near the key USD 2,800 support level, which has been an important price floor several times in 2025. On 23 November ETH was at USD 2,768.62, slightly up on the previous day but more than 28% lower than a month ago. Technical analysts point to an inverse head-and-shoulders pattern on long-term charts, which usually signals a trend reversal. According to Onlyfrens, potential Fibonacci-based targets lie between USD 9,600 and 13,500, provided the right shoulder holds and the neckline is broken. Short-term resistance is at USD 3,000–3,200.

Despite institutional buying, Ethereum still faces problems such as reduced market-maker liquidity and outflows from Ethereum ETFs. Before a partial return of inflows on 21 November, US spot Ethereum ETFs had recorded USD 1.33 billion of outflows over nine consecutive days. Analysts warn that the USD 3,100–3,600 zone is full of liquidity clusters from underwater long positions.