The gas limit per block of Ethereum reaches 60M in a major capacity expansion days before the Fusaka upgrade.

Source: Yellow Original Title: Ethereum's gas limit per block reaches 60M in a major capacity expansion days before the Fusaka upgrade

Original Link:

Ethereum surpasses new execution capacity threshold

Ethereum surpassed a new execution capacity threshold when the gas limit per block of its mainnet reached 60 million on November 25, marking the highest level the network has seen in four years and doubling the base layer capacity in a single year.

The adjustment was applied automatically after more than 513,000 validators expressed their support for the increase, surpassing the 50% threshold required by Ethereum's consensus rules.

The researcher from the Ethereum Foundation Toni Wahrstätter described this milestone as the culmination of a year-long community effort to expand transaction throughput on the base layer. The moment is significant: Ethereum faces its hard fork Fusaka on December 3rd, which will introduce PeerDAS and additional scaling infrastructure designed to multiply data availability for layer 2 networks.

The increase in the gas limit comes as the broader Ethereum ecosystem recently recorded transaction speeds exceeding 24,000 transactions per second through its layer 2 infrastructure, indicating an accelerated adoption of scalability solutions.

What happened

The increase in the gas limit from 45 million to 60 million represents a 33% jump in block capacity, allowing Ethereum to process more transactions per block, including token transfers, smart contract executions, and swaps on DEX. Validators independently adjusted their node settings to signal their support for higher limits, triggering the automatic increase once the majority threshold was surpassed.

Blockchain researcher Zhixiong Pan highlighted three converging technical enhancements that made the increase feasible: EIP-7623, which introduces calldata cost adjustments at the protocol level to avoid extreme block size scenarios; client optimizations in Nethermind, Erigon, and other implementations that allow nodes to handle blocks of 60 million gas without performance degradation; and months of results on testnet that demonstrated stable block propagation within Ethereum's four-second consensus window under heavier loads.

The gas limit had been maintained at around 30 million for almost four years before the community began efforts in March 2024 to increase the network's capacity. Ethereum developers Eric Connor and Mariano Conti launched the “Pump The Gas” initiative to mobilize validators, solo stakers, and client teams around the push for higher throughput. The movement gained traction in December 2024 when validators began to signal increases, culminating in the activation in November 2025.

Layer 2 scaling networks have seen substantial growth during this period. According to data from GrowThePie, the Ethereum ecosystem reached a peak of 24,192 transactions per second in recent weeks, with the perpetual futures platform Lighter processing approximately 5,035 TPS and Base contributing 137 TPS. The seven-day average across all Layer 2 networks stands at 364.52 TPS, and Layer 2 solutions already account for approximately 95% of the total transaction activity in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Why it is important

The increase in the gas limit addresses a fundamental limitation of Ethereum's base layer at a critical time for scaling infrastructure. Higher gas limits allow for more economic activity to be settled directly on the main network, reducing congestion during peak demand and providing room for decentralized applications to operate without extreme gas efficiency optimization. For developers, this translates to cleaner code and faster deployment cycles, as smart contracts no longer require extreme gas optimizations to remain economically viable.

The co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, indicated that future scaling will adopt a more selective approach instead of uniform capacity increases. He proposed combining new gas limit increases with higher costs for computationally expensive operations, such as heavy precompiles, complex arithmetic opcodes, and certain contract calls. This methodology aims to preserve the efficiency of validators and the security of the network while allowing effective block sizes to grow, ensuring that capacity increases remain sustainable without introducing new attack vectors or centralization pressures.

The timing regarding the Fusaka upgrade is strategic. Scheduled to activate at slot 13,164,544 on December 3 at 21:49 UTC, Fusaka will introduce PeerDAS, a redesigned data availability sampling protocol that Buterin has described as essential for Ethereum's long-term scaling roadmap. PeerDAS allows validators to verify the availability of blob data through sampling instead of downloading the entire blobs, significantly reducing bandwidth requirements and enabling substantial increases in blob capacity.

After the main activation of Fusaka, Ethereum will implement Blob Parameter Only forks to gradually enhance blob performance. BPO1 will increase the target for blobs per block to 10 and the maximum to 15, while BPO2 will further raise these limits to 14 and 21. The Ethereum Foundation organized a $2 million audit contest from September 15 to October 13 on the Sherlock platform, co-sponsored by Gnosis and Lido, to identify vulnerabilities before deployment on the mainnet.

Final reflections

The increase of the gas limit to 60 million and the imminent Fusaka upgrade represent a coordinated effort to scale Ethereum's infrastructure both at the base layer and the data availability layer. The network has shifted from a cautious approach that prioritized stability over growth to a data-driven strategy backed by extensive validation on testnets and client optimization work.

However, doubts about long-term decentralization persist. Larger blocks require more powerful hardware for node operators, which could potentially create entry barriers that might centralize validation over time. Current data suggests that the network remains stable, but some developers are already debating a possible increase to 100 million gas, which would require careful management of state growth, cryptographic load, and network data flow.

The relationship between layer 1 capacity expansion and layer 2 adoption remains an open question. Some analysts argue that a more scalable base layer could reduce the pressure on rollups, while others believe it will strengthen the entire ecosystem by providing stronger settlement guarantees. With layer 2 networks now processing the vast majority of Ethereum transactions and projects like Lighter, Base, and Arbitrum driving substantial activity, the effectiveness of base layer scaling will be measured by how well it supports this rapidly evolving infrastructure.

The Ethereum development roadmap continues beyond Fusaka with the Glamsterdam update scheduled for 2026, which could introduce faster block times and new increases to the gas limit. As the network aims for 10,000 TPS on the base layer and millions of TPS across its layer 2 ecosystem in the next decade, the gas limit of 60 million marks a significant checkpoint in Ethereum's ongoing transformation into a global settlement layer for decentralized applications.