The first week of December is stacked: Ethereum’s Fusaka upgrade is slated to hit mainnet, and Grayscale is moving to bring Chainlink (LINK) exposure into the ETF era. Both stories steer the “crypto week ahead” narrative—one reshapes network plumbing, the other tests investor appetite for oracles in a regulated wrapper.
Fusaka: Ethereum’s next big step
According to the Ethereum roadmap, Fusaka arrives in Q4 2025 and is designed to scale data availability for Layer-2s, harden DoS protections, and improve node ergonomics. The headliner is PeerDAS (EIP-7594), a new networking approach that lets nodes sample small pieces of rollup “blob” data—rather than downloading everything—while still checking that the full data exists. This is the bridge from today’s blobs (EIP-4844) to tomorrow’s full-on danksharding. In plain English: more L2 throughput with lower bandwidth per node.
The Ethereum Foundation has already flagged PeerDAS as a key scale lever: it changes how availability proofs work (from blob proofs to cell proofs) so clients can request just the slices they need. That reduces node load and lays the groundwork for safely raising blob capacity. Expect noticeable fee pressure relief on high-volume L2s once the network has time to digest the changes.
A faster, more flexible path to “more blobs”
Also in focus is a subtle governance tool: Blob Parameter Only (BPO) forks. Instead of waiting for a giant, everything-at-once hard fork, Ethereum can now tweak target and max blob counts—and the blob pricing adjustment factor—via small, purpose-built forks. It’s a safety valve: if demand for L2 data spikes, capacity can step up without putting home stakers on data center treadmills. Official roadmap pages describe this as part of Fusaka’s “make scaling flexible” ethos.
Industry teams have been modeling the impact for months. The Optimism collective, for example, has written about PeerDAS as the next rung toward danksharding and a pathway to higher blob targets—useful context for anyone watching rollup fees and throughput as Fusaka turns on.
What it could mean for ETH
Short term, protocol upgrades don’t guarantee immediate price moves. But lower L2 data costs and incremental blob growth tend to boost activity on apps that are throughput-sensitive—gaming, social, payments, and DeFi with heavy calldata. Over time, that can buoy ETH fundamentals via L1 settlement demand. CoinDesk’s “Week Ahead” notes the upgrade as the marquee event, with mainnet activation targeted for mid-week. Keep an eye on fee dashboards and rollup status pages for the first signs of improvement.
Meanwhile: Grayscale pushes Chainlink from trust to ETF
On the market structure side, Grayscale is advancing plans around its Chainlink vehicle. The firm operates the Grayscale Chainlink Trust (LINK) and has filed to convert it into a spot LINK ETF—a step laid out in SEC paperwork and echoed in company resources. The trust dates back to 2020 as a Delaware statutory trust; conversion would move the product along Grayscale’s well-worn lifecycle (private placement → public quotation → SEC reporting → ETF).
Financial press coverage this morning framed the launch timing as as early as this week, citing ETF specialists tracking approvals and listings. If the conversion and uplisting proceed on schedule, it could become the first U.S. spot Chainlink ETF, giving traditional portfolios a simpler way to hold oracle exposure under familiar rules. That’s notable for LINK liquidity and for the broader trend of single-asset crypto ETFs branching beyond BTC and ETH.
Why an oracle ETF matters at all
For years, Chainlink was an “infrastructure coin” that institutions admired but rarely allocated to directly. An ETF wrapper changes the access equation: brokerage rails, standard custody, and clearer reporting. If assets migrate from OTC trust shares or from offshore venues into a U.S.-listed product, you could see tighter tracking, steadier inflows, and potentially a broader investor base—the same arc we saw as BTC and ETH moved into spot ETFs. The SEC filing history confirms the structure; the market is watching for the final green lights.
The week ahead: three things to track
- Fusaka mainnet and L2 fees. Once the fork lands, monitor a few bellwether rollups’ data fee lines and throughput metrics. PeerDAS won’t rewrite economics overnight, but any consistent decline in blob-related costs would validate the upgrade’s goal: higher capacity without centralizing side effects. Ethereum.org’s PeerDAS explainer sets the expectations clearly.
- ETF logistics for GLNK. Watch for conversion effectiveness, listing venue details, and the ticker mechanics around the move from trust units to an ETF share class. Grayscale’s resource hub lists the GLNK materials; the SEC file spells out the trust’s structure and the conversion path. If the listing happens this week, it’s a new datapoint for LINK price discovery in U.S. hours.
- Markets digest security headlines. Separate from Fusaka and ETFs, CoinDesk highlighted ongoing security stories that have weighed on crypto markets into December. For traders, it’s a reminder that macro structure (ETF pipes) and micro plumbing (protocol upgrades) coexist with day-to-day risk events. Position sizing beats prediction.
Conclusion
- Ethereum’s Fusaka upgrade is the week’s technology anchor. PeerDAS (EIP-7594) switches blob checks from full downloads to sampling, easing node bandwidth and paving the way for more blob capacity via nimble BPO forks. It’s a concrete advance toward the danksharding vision—and a likely tailwind for L2 fees over time.
- Grayscale’s Chainlink Trust moving toward an ETF gives LINK a clearer access path for traditional portfolios. If timing holds, it could be the first U.S. spot LINK ETF, expanding the single-asset ETF slate beyond BTC and ETH.
- For the crypto week ahead, watch activation timing, blob metrics, listing updates, and flows. The stories rhyme: better pipes for data (Fusaka) and better pipes for capital (ETF rails). Both can matter for how developers build—and how investors allocate.