Ethereum Price on December 5, 2025: Fusaka Upgrade, ETF Flows and Whale Buying Shape the Next Move for ETH

Updated: December 5, 2025

Key takeaways

Ethereum price today: ETH is trading around $3,100–$3,200, slightly lower on the day after a sharp rebound from November’s lows near $2,700–$2,900. ^[1]
Major catalyst: The Fusaka network upgrade, activated this week, boosts Ethereum’s scalability and cuts Layer‑2 costs, renewing the “real yield” and deflation narrative around ETH. ^[2]
On‑chain accumulation: “Shark” and whale wallets have accumulated hundreds of thousands of ETH, with one recent spree adding over $47 million in a few hours and institutional treasuries like BitMine buying tens of thousands of coins. ^[3]
ETF flows flip positive: After $1.4 billion in Ethereum ETF outflows in November, early December has seen a strong $140 million single‑day inflow led by BlackRock, plus a policy reversal from Vanguard that opens its platform to crypto ETFs. ^[4]
Forecasts diverge: Short‑term models cluster around a move toward $3,300–$3,500, while long‑term calls range from moderate targets near $4,000–$8,000 by 2030 to ultra‑bullish scenarios of $62,000 if Ethereum captures a much larger share of global finance. ^[5]

Important: This article is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice. Cryptocurrency markets are highly volatile; never invest money you cannot afford to lose.

Ethereum price today: trading just above $3,100 after a deep correction

As of December 5, 2025, Ethereum (ETH) is trading around $3,140, with an intraday range roughly between $3,075 and $3,220, reflecting a modest 1–2% decline over the last 24 hours.

Different data providers paint a similar picture: recent closing prints cluster in the low $3,100s, with one dataset citing $3,123.90, a 1.36% drop on the day. ^[6] Aggregators tracking spot averages show ETH hovering near $3,190–$3,200 and note that Ethereum has logged about 14 green days out of the last 30, with volatility close to 8% for the month. ^[7]

Zooming out, ETH is still recovering from a steep correction:

An analysis of the last five months highlights a 45% drop from an August peak near $4,950 to roughly $2,900 by early December. ^[8]
Other commentators estimate a 25–30% slide from recent highs at the start of December, driven by global risk‑off sentiment, rising bond yields and heavy liquidations across leveraged crypto positions. ^[9]

In other words, the Ethereum price today reflects a market that has sharply corrected but is attempting to rebuild a base above the psychologically critical $3,000 level.

Fusaka upgrade: Ethereum’s new scaling chapter and why markets care

The biggest fundamental story behind Ethereum’s price action this week is the Fusaka upgrade, a major hard fork that activated on mainnet on December 3, 2025. ^[10]

Specialist research outlets describe Fusaka as:

Ethereum’s second major upgrade of 2025 after Pectra, and a key step in the post‑Merge roadmap that previously delivered Dencun and its “blob” data system. ^[11]
A package introducing PeerDAS (Peer Data Availability Sampling), which lets validators verify data by sampling rather than downloading everything, dramatically reducing bandwidth requirements. ^[12]
An upgrade that targets Layer‑2 transaction costs, with estimates suggesting rollup fees could fall by 40–60% as more data availability space comes online. ^[13]
A shift that increases block capacity and aims to restore Ethereum’s deflationary pressure by enabling more activity – and therefore more fee burn – on L1 and L2. ^[14]

Markets are already reacting. Coverage of the upgrade notes that ETH jumped back above $3,000 as Fusaka went live, with traders debating whether it will trigger a larger rally later in December. TechStock²+1

From a price‑narrative standpoint, Fusaka matters because it:

Reinforces Ethereum’s “rollup‑centric” scaling roadmap, making it easier and cheaper for Layer‑2s to settle back onto mainnet. ^[15]
Strengthens the case that ETH can remain a value‑accruing asset, not just a piece of technical infrastructure that Layer‑2 networks outcompete. ^[16]
Arrives just as institutional product flows and macro conditions are turning, making it a focal catalyst for traders betting on a new phase of the cycle.

Sharks, whales and on‑chain data: accumulation under $3,200

One of the most striking stories today is the return of large buyers to Ethereum.

A detailed market report from Asia‑based Pintu highlights that on December 5:

Ethereum was trading near $3,190, down about 0.46% on the day.
Yet “shark” wallets holding between 1,000 and 10,000 ETH have been aggressively accumulating, pushing the price back toward the $3,200 area.
On a single day, the Ethereum network saw around 190,000 new addresses added.
From mid‑November into early December, these mid‑sized wallets accumulated more than 450,000 ETH, while a prior October period saw about 1.3 million ETH sold into the market. ^[17]

CoinCentral reports a similar pattern, noting that ETH recently surged above $3,200, with shark wallets once again identified as the main driver of the rebound. According to on‑chain data cited there:

ETH briefly traded near $3,207, outperforming many major altcoins.
Over 25.9 million ETH has migrated into self‑custody accumulation wallets since June.
Derivatives open interest in Ethereum has climbed to roughly $18 billion, up about $3 billion over the last week – a sign of renewed speculative activity. ^[18]

At the upper end of the spectrum, whales are also waking up:

A European research desk reports that whales bought more than $47 million in ETH within a few hours, which analysts frame as a possible early signal of a larger upside move. ^[19]
A separate analysis of BitMine Immersion Technologies – the crypto holding company chaired by Tom Lee – finds that the firm now holds over $12 billion worth of ETH and recently added 41,946 coins (about $130 million) near the $3,100 level. ^[20]

This combination of shark accumulation, whale purchases, and rising derivatives interest is a key reason many traders see $3,000 as a “line in the sand” for Ethereum going into mid‑December.

ETF flows: from $1.4B outflows to fresh inflows and a Vanguard U‑turn

The institutional picture around Ethereum has shifted quickly over the past two weeks:

In November 2025, U.S.‑listed spot Ethereum ETFs recorded about $1.4 billion in net outflows, with major products from BlackRock and Fidelity among those seeing redemptions. Analysts attributed the move to investors de‑risking amid heightened volatility. ^[21]
On December 3, however, new data show that spot Ethereum ETFs saw $140.2 million in net inflows in a single day, with BlackRock’s ETH fund taking in around $53 million, Fidelity about $34 million, and several others posting positive flows. ^[22]

Alongside Fusaka, this swing in ETF flows is one of the primary arguments behind the “bottom is in” narrative that’s gaining traction among bulls.

Adding to the structural backdrop, Vanguard – one of the world’s largest asset managers – has reversed its long‑standing ban on crypto ETFs and mutual funds on its brokerage platform. Clients can now buy third‑party funds that track crypto assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and Solana, though Vanguard still has no plans to launch its own crypto products. ^[23]

While Vanguard’s move doesn’t directly change demand for ETH overnight, it removes a major distribution bottleneck for regulated funds that hold Ethereum and further legitimizes the asset class for conservative investors.

Short‑term Ethereum price forecasts for December 2025

1. Technical targets around $3,300–$3,500

Several technical and trading‑desk analyses published on December 5 point to a similar short‑term range:

Pintu’s daily ETH note describes the price moving inside an ascending channel, with near‑term targets between $3,300 and $3,500 if the uptrend holds. The report warns, however, that the RSI near 71 puts ETH in overbought territory, raising the risk of a corrective pullback back toward $3,000 support. ^[24]
A Brave New Coin outlook argues that $3,050 is a “crucial support” area and that momentum is building toward the $3,400–$3,500 band, while also stressing that macro conditions and competition from other smart‑contract platforms could still derail the move. ^[25]
An Elliott‑wave based analysis from LiteFinance proposes a long setup from around $3,151.93 with a target near $3,431, framing the current structure as a linking wave that could extend higher if the broader crypto market cooperates. ^[26]

2. Quant and algorithmic forecasts

Algorithmic and quantitative models are somewhat more conservative but still lean bullish over the coming days and weeks:

Changelly’s model projects a modest 3.2% rise to about $3,272 by December 7, while noting that sentiment indicators show only a “fear” reading of 26, suggesting investors are cautious rather than euphoric. ^[27]
CoinCodex expects ETH to trade in a $3,172–$3,274 range this week and sees upside toward roughly $3,534 by December 15 if the upper targets are reached. Their 30‑day forecast calls for an 11–12% gain to around $3,539 by early January. ^[28]
Binance’s own prediction dashboard similarly places short‑term projections for early December near current prices and a mild grind higher into early 2026, with ETH gradually edging above $3,150 in its base case. ^[29]

3. Key levels traders are watching

In addition to those model outputs, human analysts are focusing on a few critical price levels:

Support: $3,000 (short term), followed by the $2,800–$2,900 area that contained the November sell‑off. ^[30]
Immediate resistance: $3,300–$3,500, where several short‑term forecasts cluster. ^[31]
Higher resistance: $4,800, $6,800 and $8,800 – levels highlighted by analysts as key checkpoints on any larger move higher. ^[32]

For now, most short‑term frameworks assume ETH consolidates above $3,000 and tests the mid‑$3,000s if market conditions remain stable.

Long‑term Ethereum price predictions: from cautious to ultra‑bullish

Longer‑dated Ethereum price forecasts published in the last 48 hours illustrate just how wide the range of expectations has become.

Quantitative and research‑driven outlooks

CoinCodex projects ETH trading between approximately $3,172 and $3,809 over the remainder of 2025, with a 2030 range between about $4,625 and $8,658 in its baseline scenarios. ^[33]
CoinMarketCap’s research hub and other analytics outlets similarly frame Ethereum’s medium‑term upside as modest multiples rather than an immediate 10x, emphasizing fundamental drivers like usage, staking rates and protocol revenues rather than pure narrative momentum. ^[34]

Tom Lee’s multi‑scenario bull case

On the more optimistic side, Tom Lee – a well‑known Wall Street strategist and chairman of BitMine – has doubled down on a very bullish Ethereum thesis:

In a detailed note and subsequent coverage, he argues that Ethereum is “grossly undervalued” around $3,000 and that the bottom of the current correction is likely in. ^[35]
His team maps several ETH price targets based on the ETH/BTC ratio and broader market conditions:
- Around $7,000 if ETH simply returns to its average historical relationship with Bitcoin during the next bull phase.
- Up to $13,000 in a strong cycle peak scenario.
- A very long‑term, “blue‑sky” target near $62,000 if Ethereum evolves into a core global settlement layer and the ETH/BTC ratio reaches roughly 0.25. ^[36]

Lee stresses that those extreme numbers are multi‑year possibilities, not immediate predictions for 2026.

AI and aggregated prediction models

AI‑driven forecast aggregators add another dimension:

A recent survey of AI price‑prediction tools reported an average Ethereum 2030 target above $28,000, illustrating how machine‑learning models, when fed historical boom‑and‑bust cycles, often extrapolate aggressively into the future. ^[37]

Taken together, the long‑term outlooks range from measured optimism (a 2x–3x move over five years) to extraordinary upside scenarios that would require Ethereum to capture a far larger share of global financial infrastructure than it does today.

Bearish arguments: Layer‑2 competition, ETF risk and macro pressure

Despite today’s bounce and bullish commentary, several bearish or cautious narratives remain firmly in play.

Layer‑2 value leakage A widely shared critique argues that Ethereum’s success in pushing transactions to cheaper Layer‑2 networks has had an unintended side effect: fee revenue and economic upside increasingly accrue to rollup operators rather than ETH holders. One recent analysis points out that from August to early December, Ethereum’s price dropped around 45% from $4,950 to about $2,900, and links that drawdown to diminished mainnet activity, weaker burn pressure, and fading institutional enthusiasm as value migrated to L2s. ^[38] Fusaka partially addresses this by improving value accrual and throughput on the base layer, but it may take months for the market to decide whether the upgrade fully solves the problem. ^[39]
ETF and macro‑driven volatility November’s $1.4 billion in ETF outflows demonstrated how quickly regulated capital can exit the market when macro conditions turn. ^[40] Analysts who emphasize this data warn that early December’s inflows could just as easily reverse if inflation surprises to the upside or if risk assets sell off again. ^[41]
Cautious model signals Even some algorithmic models that foresee modest price gains still classify Ethereum as “bearish” for 2025 based on technical indicators, reminding investors that recent volatility and drawdowns remain significant. ^[42]

The upshot: while the Fusaka upgrade, ETF inflow reversal and whale buying are powerful bullish signals, the structural bear case – centered on competition, value capture and macro fragility – has not disappeared.

What to watch next for Ethereum price

For traders, investors and observers trying to make sense of ETH for the rest of December, a few key signposts stand out:

Price levels
- Hold above $3,000 and reclaim $3,300–$3,500 → supports the thesis that November marked a medium‑term bottom. ^[43]
- Lose $2,800–$2,900 convincingly → re‑opens the door to deeper retracements and validates more cautious ETF and macro narratives. ^[44]
On‑chain trends
- Continued shark and whale accumulation, especially from treasuries like BitMine. ^[45]
- Sustained growth in new addresses and self‑custody balances, which would indicate real user adoption rather than temporary speculation. ^[46]
ETF and institutional flows
- Whether December’s positive ETF flows persist or fade. ^[47]
- The impact of Vanguard’s platform opening and any future product launches from large asset managers. ^[48]
Protocol roadmap
- Follow‑up improvements after Fusaka, including minor upgrades later this month, and ongoing research around Ethereum’s future upgrades, which continue to refine how the protocol handles scalability, proposer‑builder separation, and smart‑contract upgradeability. ^[49]

Bottom line

On December 5, 2025, the Ethereum price sits near $3,100, caught between the memory of a brutal 45% drawdown and a fresh narrative built around Fusaka, ETF inflows, and large‑scale accumulation by sharks, whales and institutional treasuries.

Short‑term forecasts broadly agree that as long as $3,000 holds, ETH has room to probe the $3,300–$3,500 area into mid‑December. Longer‑term, views diverge sharply – from cautious models envisioning a gradual climb toward $4,000–$8,000, to highly optimistic scenarios that place Ethereum in the five‑figure or even $62,000 conversation if it becomes a core layer of global finance.

For anyone following or trading ETH, the message is clear: volatility and uncertainty remain high, and the same catalysts that can drive explosive upside can also amplify downside risk. As always in crypto, careful position sizing, diversification, and independent research are essential.