Ethereum advanced past $4,300 on Wednesday after successfully completing a critical test of its Fusaka upgrade on the Holesky testnet, marking a pivotal milestone toward the network’s December mainnet launch.
The test deployment finalized early Wednesday morning, prompting Ethereum Foundation DevOps engineer Parithosh Jayanthi to announce “Holesky finalized! A great first step towards Fusaka on mainnet and to more blobs on Ethereum”. The successful implementation represents the first phase of testing for what developers consider Ethereum’s most significant scaling upgrade since the Pectra hard fork earlier this year.
Market Response Fuels Price Surge
Ethereum’s price climbed over 5% following the testnet news, reaching $4,304 and demonstrating renewed investor confidence in the network’s development trajectory. The rally triggered substantial market activity, with futures liquidations totaling $145.7 million over 24 hours, including $110.6 million in short positions being forced out.
The price movement broke through a descending trendline that had pressured ETH since September 13, with the cryptocurrency now testing resistance near the 50-day moving average around $4,400. Analysts suggest that sustained momentum above current levels could push Ethereum toward $4,800, while support remains anchored around $4,320.
December Launch Timeline Takes Shape
Following the Holesky success, Ethereum core developers have scheduled two additional testnet deployments: Sepolia on October 14 and Hoodi on October 28. Once these testing phases conclude successfully, developers will lock in the final mainnet activation date, currently targeted for December 3, 2025.
The Fusaka upgrade introduces 12 Ethereum Improvement Proposals, with PeerDAS (EIP-7594) serving as the centerpiece feature. This enhancement allows validators to verify only portions of data blobs rather than downloading complete chunks, potentially reducing operational costs for both Layer 2 networks and validators while maintaining security standards.
The Holesky testnet, which closely mirrors Ethereum’s mainnet validator configuration, will be decommissioned two weeks after Fusaka’s mainnet launch, having experienced reliability issues in recent months. This final test represents the network’s last major validation before retirement, underscoring the significance of the successful deployment for Ethereum’s scaling roadmap.
