Ethereum Price Prediction: Vitalik’s Network Upgrade and $3,600 Path Ahead

Ethereum (ETH/USD) is holding steady above $3,130 after breaking out of a descending price channel. At the same time, co-founder Vitalik Buterin unveiled a major roadmap that could redefine the blockchain’s structure over the next four years. Together, the technical and network fundamentals are aligning for what could be Ethereum’s most transformative phase since The Merge.

Ethereum Re-Claiming Its Ground Above $3,100

Ethereum’s up 1.24% over the past 24 hours and is currently hovering around $3,100, with a market cap of a tidy $378 billion. After finally breaking free from that pesky descending channel, it’s looking like the sideways trading is finally done and dusted for now – which is good news for the short-term bulls.

On the 4-hour chart, you can see ETH is putting up a string of higher lows and higher highs – a nice sign that buyers are regaining their strength, and it’s all thanks to that 50-EMA crossing above the 100-EMA.

And if we take a look at the RSI, it’s ticking along just above 70, which tells us the uptrend is in good health without getting too overexcited. Of course, the first bit of resistance it’ll face is the $3305 mark, followed closely by $3432.

ZK-EVM and PeerDAS Transform the Network

Vitalik Buterin said Ethereum has reached a “fundamentally new kind of decentralized network” as ZK-EVMs and PeerDAS move from concept to implementation.

Now that ZKEVMs are at alpha stage (production-quality performance, remaining work is safety) and PeerDAS is live on mainnet, it's time to talk more about what this combination means for Ethereum.

These are not minor improvements; they are shifting Ethereum into being a…

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) January 3, 2026

He described the combination as a breakthrough that “solves the blockchain trilemma” — achieving decentralization, consensus, and high bandwidth simultaneously.

Key milestones from Buterin’s post include:

• 2026: ZK-EVM nodes begin rolling out.
• 2027–2030: Gas limits increase, and distributed block building reshapes network throughput.
• Long-term, Ethereum aims to enable distributed block construction — ensuring no single entity can control the transaction flow.

These innovations could lower costs and accelerate adoption, reinforcing Ethereum’s long-term value proposition beyond speculation.

Ethereum (ETH/USD) Technical Setup Hints at $3,430–$3,600 Range

Ethereum price prediction has turned bullish as candlestick patterns are sending out some strong signals. A bullish engulfing candle helped nudge it out of that channel, and that was followed up with a spinning top, which suggests the market might take a little breather before it gets going again.

The measured move from this pattern is looking at $3430 as the next target – and if this momentum keeps going, then it could easily push towards $3600.

On the flip side, we’ve still got support holding around $3070, but if it drops below $3010, that breakout will be invalidated. For traders who are looking to get in on the action, a long entry near $3100 with targets between $3300 and $3430 might be the way to go.

Long-Term Outlook: A New Ethereum Era

Ethereum’s alignment of strong fundamentals, network innovation, and technical resilience paints an optimistic picture for early 2026.

If Vitalik’s vision for distributed block building materializes, Ethereum could evolve into a faster, fairer, and more scalable blockchain — one capable of handling the next wave of decentralized finance and AI-driven applications.

With momentum building both on-chain and on the chart, ETH looks poised to test the $3,600–$3,700 zone before targeting $4,000 later in the year.

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