Ethereum Raises Its Gas Limit to 60M for the First Time in 4 Years

The approach to the Fusaka upgrade ignites minds. In the Ethereum ecosystem, both developers and enthusiasts are buzzing with excitement. The idea of a network capable of absorbing more and more activity without succumbing to congestion is a consensus. This time, the lever is called gas limit, this invisible gauge that limits the load of a block. And in this area, the network has just crossed an unprecedented threshold in four years. A technical and symbolic milestone that could reshape the blockchain architecture for years to come.

Ethereum boosted by its base: 60M, result of a technical consensus

Born from a collective effort called “Pump The Gas,” the initiative aiming to raise Ethereum block capacity has borne fruit: the limit has increased from 45M to 60 million gas per block. This increase was made possible thanks to over 513,000 validators massively signaling their agreement. An automatic switch occurred in November 2025, doubling the execution capacity at the base layer.

The initiative, led among others by Eric Connor and Mariano Conti, relied on decentralized mobilization. Independent stakers, client teams, pools—all were called to get involved. The goal: reduce pressure on transaction fees, improve fluidity, and prepare the next protocol upgrade.

Just a year after the community started pushing for higher gas limits, Ethereum is now running with a 60M block gas limit. That’s a 2× increase in a single year — and it’s only the beginning.

Toni Wahrstätter 

Smart scaling: Ethereum bets on targeted growth

Increasing block size is no longer enough. Vitalik Buterin proposes a refined approach based on raising the gas limit combined with revaluing costly operations. The idea? Penalize heavy computations and memory accesses while encouraging more efficient contract designs.

Potential targets include: SSTORE, CALL to large contracts, precompiles, or MODMUL. This paradigm shift repositions Ethereum as a smarter blockchain, rather than solely more powerful.

Vitalik summarizes this logic as follows:

Expect continued growth but more targeted / less uniform growth for next year. eg. one possible future is: 5x gas limit increase together with 5x gas cost increase for operations that are relatively inefficient to process.

This mutation is not only technical. It engages developers to rethink the very structure of their applications while laying the groundwork for sustainable scaling, counter to the classic side effects of “bigger is always better.”

Blockchain, Fusaka, and the new breath of the Ethereum network

The Fusaka upgrade, expected on December 3, officially anchors this new gas ceiling into the mainnet. Thanks to this increase, Layer 1’s capacity rises by 33%. The side effects on Layer 2 are even more striking: up to +133% throughput increase via rollups.

While competitors like Solana bet on pure speed, Ethereum chooses a hybrid path mixing robustness, security, and controlled scalability. In this context, even protocols like Arbitrum, Optimism or Base benefit from this breathing room offered by the foundation.

The data blobs introduced by EIP-4844 also play a crucial role. Less demanding, they smooth out L2s without burdening the main chain. This multi-layer strategy makes Ethereum less vulnerable to traffic jams and better suited for a mainstream DeFi future.

Key takeaways

• 513,000 validators pushed for the increase to 60M;
• 3,012 $: ETH price at time of writing;
• +33% capacity on Layer 1 as soon as effective;
• Fusaka will be activated on December 3, 2025 on mainnet;
• EIP-4844 and data blobs support L2 rollups.

The gas limit increase is a breakthrough. But it is not without risk. Three major threats loom: increasing centralization, hardware requirement overload, and exclusion of small validators. Ethereum’s future will depend on its ability to combine inclusiveness, scalability, and resilience.