Plus: Ethereum's next big upgrade is coming - here's what it'll change

Welcome

GM. If crypto were a fruit salad, today's serving is 80% melon, 20% chaos.

Here's what's in the chaos part:

🍍 Why this bull run feels boring.

⚙️ Ethereum's Fusaka upgrade.

🍋 North Korean fake IT pros, Australia eases stablecoin rules + more

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🍍 Market flavor today

Find out more about the Fear & Greed Index here.

Name		Price	24H	7D
Crypto Market Cap: $4.06T -1.44% (24H)
	Bitcoin BTC	$115,915.64	-1.25%	1.08%
	Ethereum ETH	$4,492.80	-2.06%	-0.41%
	XRP XRP	$3.01	-3.21%	-0.22%
	BNB BNB	$984.86	-0.87%	8.89%
	Solana SOL	$238.23	-3.20%	0.54%

Prices as of 10:00 AM EST. Click here to see live data.

A lotta people have been saying this bull run feels… kinda boring.

In past cycles, there was wild hype, crazy altcoin gains, and overall excitement. But this time around, not so much. Why?

That's what tech entrepreneur Kyle Chassé and Into The Cryptoverse founder Benjamin Cowen tried to answer in a recent podcast.

Cowen explains it like this: every cycle gives smaller gains than the last. In the early days, Bitcoin could do insane returns, but now that the market is bigger and more mature, those returns have shrunk.

For example, Bitcoin started this cycle at ~$15K and has gone as high as $124K - that's a 7 - 8x jump. In the stock market, that would be considered massive; but in crypto, where you can see 50x increases... yeah, it feels boring.

Add to that the fact that altcoins haven't moved that much, and the market feels less thrilling for those chasing huge multipliers.

Bitcoin price chart from BitDegree, 2022-2025

Source: BitDegree

But even though the excitement feels muted, Bitcoin's overall price pattern is in line with its previous cycles.

In almost every cycle so far, Bitcoin has peaked in the fourth quarter (October - December) of the year after a halving - that was the case in 2013, 2017, and 2021.

In each of those years, Bitcoin first made a local high in August, dipped in September, and then increased to its ultimate top in Q4.

Right now, we're in the same post-halving year and have already seen the August high and September pullback, which could be setting us up for another Q4 peak.

Bitcoin price chart from BitDegree, all time

Source: BitDegree

And what about altcoins?

Cowen says they usually peak a little later, but by the time you see alt season, that often means the Bitcoin bull run is already ending.

And while certain coins might keep moving higher after Bitcoin tops, the overall market tends to follow Bitcoin's lead.

Total crypto market cap by cryptocurrencies, 09-19

Source: BitDegree

All that being said, some analysts like Raoul Pal and Arthur Hayes think that government spending, stimulus, and lower interest rates could stretch the bull market into 2026.

Cowen doesn't rule it out, but his base case is still that the top happens in 2025. For several reasons:

👉 Again, repeating cycle patterns;

👉 Macro factors like rising long-term interest rates or an increase in unemployment could put pressure on crypto as early as 2026, so it'll be harder for the cycle to extend that long.

Either way, the good news: bear markets are getting less brutal.

Where Bitcoin once saw 90% drops, recent cycles have been closer to 70 - 80%. Painful, sure, but more manageable.

So, is this bull run boring? Maybe. But if history is any guide, the coming months could be a lot more exciting than the year has felt so far.

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🥝 Memecoin harvest

These tokens went full Chad today 💪

Data as of 06:40 AM EST.

Check out these memecoins and plenty more here.

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⚙️ Ethereum's Fusaka upgrade

Imagine a city with just one major train line. Every few minutes, a train pulls into the station - but it only has a few seats.

If the platform's quiet, no problem: you get on, pay the regular fare, and you're on your way.

But during rush hour? Ohhh boy, issa mess.

The place is packed. Everyone's scrambling for the same few seats. Some people pay extra just to get on board, while the rest are stuck waiting, watching train after train leave without them.

Basically, nobody's havin' a good time.

Meme about Thomas the Train Engine seeing a mess

That's been Ethereum's reality for years.

Ethereum groups transactions into blocks. Each block is validated every 12 seconds or so, and it has limited space.

When usage is low, blocks aren't full. Your transaction goes in immediately, and the fee you pay (called gas) is minimal.

Yay 😃👍

... But when demand is high, the block fills up instantly, and extra transactions go into a waiting area called the mempool.

To cut the line, users raise their gas fees. Validators pick the highest fees first - so, if you bid too low, your transaction might just wait in the mempool, sometimes for hours.

Not yay 😔👎

Because of this, Ethereum has been going through a series of upgrades to scale better and keep fees under control:

👉 The Merge in 2022.

This was Ethereum's switch to Proof-of-Stake.

This didn't reduce fees, but it cut energy use by ~99% and laid the foundation for scaling.

👉 The Dencun upgrade in 2024.

This one introduced blobs - a new type of temporary data storage made for Layer-2 networks.

Before Dencun, L2s had to squeeze all their transaction data into Ethereum's limited block space. Blobs gave L2s their own separate storage, so they could post their transaction data without clogging up the main block.

The result: L2s became much cheaper and faster, which meant users could finally enjoy lower fees and quicker confirmations.

👉 And now, Ethereum is prepping for the next big step: the Fusaka upgrade, planned for December 3.

Table showing Ethereum's scheduled updates

Source: @l3olanza

The point of Fusaka is to scale up what was started with Dencun.

Right now, each Ethereum block can handle about 6 - 9 blobs. Fusaka will raise that limit: first to 15 blobs per block, and then to 21 blobs in early 2026.

For everyday users, here's what that means: more blobs → less competition for space → lower L2 operating costs → cheaper & faster transactions.

Plus, it keeps Ethereum competitive with chains like Solana and Avalanche, which already attract users with low fees. Ethereum's strength has always been security - but now it's scaling in a way that makes it affordable, too.

Another achievement unlocked soon! 🚀

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🍋 News drops you can't miss

🕵️ The Security Alliance found people pretending to be IT pros to break into crypto companies. They flagged at least 60 fake profiles linked to North Korea.

⚖️ Stablecoins got easier rules in Australia. The ASIC introduced a new exemption that gives businesses temporary relief from some licensing rules when they're helping distribute stablecoins.

🚀 Grayscale got SEC approval to launch the first US ETP that holds multiple cryptos. The fund packs Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana, and Cardano.

💸 Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, thinks kids are being taught money all wrong. He says it doesn't make sense to train them to save cash that just keeps losing value.

🔗 PayPal has expanded PYUSD to 8 more blockchains. It's using LayerZero's Stargate Hydra system, which basically links the stablecoin to new platforms in a more flexible, decentralized way.

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