Most assets simply can't reinvent themselves every few quarters, but Ethereum (ETH 0.42%) arguably does just that. After pushing two major upgrades, Pectra and Fusaka, in 2025, the chain has another two big improvements on the docket for 2026.
Nonetheless, the coin's price is down by 38% during the past three months alone, largely for macro reasons that are well beyond its control. Thus it's likely undervalued, and potentially by quite a lot. Does that make it a screaming buy with a hearty investment of $5,000?
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The upgrade pipeline is solid, but it can't guarantee returns
Ethereum's 2025 upgrades were a lot more than cosmetic improvements, and they laid the technical groundwork for a lot of the follow-on work that's going to happen this year. This stuff might sound boring (and it might actually be) but knowing what's going on with it is key to appreciating the chain's place in the crypto sector's competitive landscape, not to mention its future opportunities for growth.
The Pectra upgrade went live in May 2025, and it bundled changes aimed at providing better wallet UX, more efficient staking, and more throughput for Layer-2 (L2) chains. Fusaka followed on Dec. 3, and its headline feature, peer-to-peer data availability sampling (PeerDAS) is also a game changer for the chain's ability to provide rapid performance at scale, and substantially cheaper than before. Today, the chain's average transaction fees are roughly 75% lower than three years ago, with an average token swap now costing about $0.30, so these successive upgrades are definitely succeeding in making Ethereum a cheaper and easier technology to use.
CRYPTO: ETH
Key Data Points
For 2026, the next upgrade, Glamsterdam, will build on those past successes while also adding new censorship resistance features. But, if the coin's price performance after past updates is any indication, investors simply can't count on a boost.
There's no rush to buy it
There's not exactly a rush to buy Ethereum before Glamsterdam drops.
Ethereum's upside comes from being the settlement layer that L2s and on-chain finance route through. Given that its upgrades tend to reduce transaction costs rather than increase them, the coin's value capture from the traffic it supports is still very weak, and it would likely take a deluge of new traffic to move the needle for investors. Realistically, the new traffic will probably ramp up slowly over time, assuming it arrives at all, so buying the coin means getting exposure both to the value generated from the improvement of its underlying tech and also the value generated from people using it to pay for decentralized finance (DeFi) apps and services.
But it's still very much an asset worth owning, as it's one of the most important in the crypto sector. An investment of $5,000 buys roughly 2.5 coins, which is enough exposure in case 2026's development road map plays out such that the coin's price significantly rises, which is still possible.
Of course, if you're usually intolerant of risk, it's probably better to aim for a much smaller allocation.
