Web3 Weekly: Fusaka Countdown, ETH Rotation, and Solana Under the Microscope

Michele Colonna
Sep 5
3 min read

If last cycle’s mantra was “number go up,” this week’s is “infrastructure grows up.” Ethereum is sprinting toward another hard fork, institutions are quietly rotating toward ETH, and Solana’s speed narrative is facing stress tests in public. Builders, investors, and creators all have homework.

1) Ethereum’s next hard fork, Fusaka, lines up for early November — what it actually changes

Ethereum core devs have converged on an early November 2025 mainnet window for Fusaka, a bundle of ~11 back-end EIPs aimed at scalability, gas efficiency, and node resilience—without breaking contracts. Devnets are live, public testnets roll through September–October, then mainnet if timelines hold.

Why it matters (beyond headlines):

Rollup economics: Several EIPs optimize data handling and validator workloads, a tailwind for L2 costs and throughput even before the more ambitious data-availability upgrades land.
Operational stability: Focus on node health and efficiency reduces tail risks during peak usage—good news for dapp uptime.

How to prepare (builders & infra):

Track client releases and test on public testnets the moment they open in September/October.
Pre-flight gas and simulation assumptions—some opcodes and calldata patterns may price differently at the margin.
Communicate rollout plans to users (status pages, failover) for the fork window.

2) Flow of funds: BTC → ETH rotation shows up in ETF data (and could prime an alt season)

U.S. spot ether ETFs posted strong August inflows while bitcoin ETFs saw heavy net outflows—the second-worst month on record—signaling institutions are tilting toward ETH exposure into the fall upgrade cadence. Analysts frame it as a tactical rotation that may spill into higher-beta altcoins.

Why it matters (investors & treasuries):

Narrative + catalysts: With Pectra in the rearview and Fusaka ahead, ETH has clearer near-term fundamentals than BTC (which is digesting outflows).
Liquidity knock-ons: When ETFs pull in ETH, spot order books thicken and DeFi TVL often follows—historically a setup for selective alt strength as risk appetite widens.

Positioning thoughts (not financial advice):

Rebalance risk: if you hold only BTC beta, model scenarios where ETH outperforms and consider delta-hedging or a measured ETH sleeve.
For builders, this is a recruiting window: inflows bring users—make onboarding and L2 paths painless now.

3) Solana faces fresh scrutiny on throughput claims and real-world performance

Critiques flared this week alleging a “performance blowout”: users and rival communities highlighted confirmation delays and discrepancies versus touted TPS metrics, renewing debate over how to measure effective throughput under load. Solana defenders point to rapid iteration and past recoveries; skeptics want clearer telemetry and definitions.

Why it matters (multi-chain teams & traders):

Measurement ≠ marketing: “65k TPS” means little if confirmation latency or failed transactions spike in busy moments. Teams should publish success-rate and p95 latency, not just peak TPS.
Vendor risk: If you rely on Solana for time-sensitive UX (trading, gaming), implement multi-chain or fallback paths until instrumentation is more transparent.

Practical moves:

Add circuit breakers and retries; surface live chain health in-app; maintain canned comms for incident windows.
Keep an eye on upcoming client updates—if they land smoothly, sentiment can flip fast.

Signals to watch next week

Signal	Why it’s a big deal	Where to watch
Fusaka testnets go public	Confirms timeline and client readiness	Ethereum core dev calls, client repos, Cointelegraph dev coverage
ETF flow persistence	Sustained ETH inflows could broaden to majors/L2s	CoinDesk ETF trackers & SoSoValue flow dashboards
Solana client patches	Quick fixes + telemetry transparency would calm markets	Client release notes & infra providers; incident posts

Bottom line

Web3’s center of gravity is shifting from hype to plumbing: Ethereum’s cadence tightens, institutions are voting with flows, and chains are being judged by lived UX, not marketing. If you build, instrument mercilessly. If you invest, respect the flows and the roadmaps.