Ethereum Offers $2 Million Bounty Ahead of Fusaka Upgrade: What You Need to Know in 2025

What’s the $2 Million Ethereum Fusaka Bounty About?

Ethereum’s core developers aren’t taking chances with Fusaka’s launch. They’ve rolled out a high-stakes bug bounty program hosted on Sherlock, a Web3 security platform, with backing from heavyweights like Gnosis and Lido. Running from September 15 to October 13, 2025, the program incentivizes early birds with double rewards in Week 1 and 1.5x multipliers in Week 2. Sherlock has form here—they previously audited Ethereum’s Pectra bytecode changes in 2024. This isn’t just about squashing bugs; it’s a strategic move to blend crowd-sourced scrutiny with Ethereum’s ethos of decentralized security. Outside the competition window, Ethereum’s standard bug bounty still offers up to $250,000 for critical protocol flaws.

Fusaka Upgrade: The Tech Breakdown

Fusaka bundles a dozen ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) targeting security, throughput, and efficiency. The headliner?, a slick protocol (EIP 7594) that lets nodes verify data availability without downloading entire blobs—reducing validator workload. PeerDAS also cranks up blob data targets from Dencun’s 3/6 to a proposed 48/72, a boon for Layer-2 rollups. Translation: cheaper, faster transactions. Then there’s the, which splits code from data, adds versioning, and introduces new opcodes. The result? Leaner, safer bytecode for devs building smart contracts. Fusaka also inherits EIPs initially slated for Pectra, like EIP 7549 (rollup scalability) and EIP 4750 (functional upgrades).

Why Fusaka’s Timeline Is a Hot Topic

Vitalik Buterin wants Fusaka hot on Pectra’s heels, ideally with a testnet live by April 9, 2025. But let’s be real—many devs, including the Geth team, think 2026 is more likely. Pushing too fast risks half-baked code, and some argue for dropping EOF if delays pile up. Tomasz Stańczak of the Ethereum Foundation has already flagged coordination hurdles. Bottom line? Fusaka’s arrival hinges on balancing ambition with execution.

What Fusaka Means for Different Players

Cheaper rollup transactions = stronger DeFi and dApp adoption.
PeerDAS slashes data load, lowering barriers to network participation.
If Fusaka delivers, expect renewed ETH demand—though price impacts are anyone’s guess.

FAQs: Ethereum Fusaka Upgrade

When is Fusaka launching?

Officially slated for late 2025, but delays could push it to 2026.

How does PeerDAS work?

It distributes blob data checks across nodes, reducing individual validator workloads while boosting rollup capacity.

What’s the max bounty for Fusaka bugs?

$2 million during the Sherlock competition (Sept 15–Oct 13, 2025), $250k otherwise.