[The Ethereum Mainnet Upgrade Is Approaching, and the Risk of Big Holders Being Liquidated: The Interweaving of Fundamental Progress and Market Volatility]

According to Deep Tide TechFlow, Ethereum’s next major upgrade, Glamsterdam, was deployed on the Sepolia testnet on October 6. In a short period of time, the testnet’s block capacity was sharply increased, and the time required to execute the same blocks dropped significantly. The mainnet upgrade is still targeting the fourth quarter of 2026. Analysts believe that if the mainnet can successfully achieve a major increase in throughput, it will become one of the more tangible fundamental factors for this asset in recent years. However, because such major upgrades have been postponed multiple times in the past, the activation performance of other testnets afterward remains a key point the market needs to closely monitor.

Alongside the progress on fundamentals, the high-leverage showdown in the on-chain derivatives market has also drawn attention. According to Odaily Planet Daily, on-chain monitoring data shows that a well-known large holder recently chose to cut losses and stop out by liquidating thousands of ETH due to market volatility, facing significant unrealized losses on long positions and liquidation risk. When large positions are on the brink of liquidation, they often amplify short-term sentiment fluctuations in specific segments of the market, reflecting the enormous pressure some investors are under during periods of price oscillation.

Meanwhile, discussions among Ethereum researchers about crypto security have also created a split within the industry. As reported by media outlets such as CoinDesk and Decrypt, certain researchers have publicly called for the industry to begin long-term planning to address potential threats from artificial intelligence or quantum technologies, even suggesting moves toward some form of defensive posture. This viewpoint has not fully settled into consensus within the crypto community. Some believe it is overly ahead of the current risk landscape, while others remind the market to pay close attention to the long-term evolution of the underlying cryptographic technologies.

Overall, the current Ethereum ecosystem is caught in a complex interplay of fundamental technical upgrades, high-leverage capital battles, and long-term security discussions. On one hand, there are substantive tests of capacity expansion at the execution layer; on the other, there are real liquidation challenges facing on-chain speculative positions. This raises a question worth deep industry discussion: as the expansion roadmap advances steadily, how will the sentiment in the frequently volatile derivatives market and the long-term anxiety about underlying security jointly shape the future market’s pricing logic?

Related coins: $ETH $BTC