Ethereum
Ethereum’s Sepolia test network activated the Glamsterdam upgrade on October 6, raising its block gas limit to nearly 200 million, more than three times Ethereum mainnet’s current limit of 60 million. The change provides a testing environment for larger blocks as developers explore ways to increase transaction-processing capacity while preserving network reliability.
The activation was scheduled through a commit tied to epoch 353,024, which began at 13:53:36 UTC. Gas measures the computational work required to execute transactions and smart contracts on Ethereum, while the block gas limit determines the maximum amount of that work a block can accommodate.
Data from 25 consecutive Sepolia blocks recorded by Etherscan on October 8 showed gas consumption ranging from 47.1 million to 85.9 million, equivalent to approximately 24% to 43% of the new limit. The figures indicate that the sampled blocks used only part of the available capacity, meaning the higher ceiling provides additional headroom rather than demonstrating an immediate increase in transaction throughput.
For Ethereum users, a higher block gas limit could help the network accommodate periods of heavier activity by allowing more computational work to fit into individual blocks. If demand increases, that additional capacity may reduce competition for block space and moderate fee pressure. However, the benefit depends on actual network demand, and a higher limit does not automatically translate into three times as many transactions.
The upgrade also highlights the trade-off between capacity and decentralization. Larger blocks require more resources to process, transmit and validate, potentially increasing the hardware and bandwidth requirements for network participants. Ethereum Foundation researchers have previously warned that gas limits above 40 million could “fail to propagate as expected,” underscoring the technical risks associated with expanding block capacity too aggressively.
Ethereum has already increased its mainnet gas limit in stages. A validator vote in February 2025 moved the limit from 30 million to 32 million, before it rose to 60 million later that year. The Fusaka upgrade, which went live on December 3, 2025, established 60 million as the default limit, providing context for the more ambitious capacity being tested on Sepolia.
Glamsterdam also sits within a broader development roadmap aimed at improving Ethereum’s ability to handle network activity. Block-level access lists are intended to identify the accounts and data accessed by transactions within a block, potentially allowing computers to verify transactions in parallel. Enshrined proposer-builder separation would bring the process for selecting block contents into Ethereum’s protocol rules rather than relying on external middleware.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin outlined a longer-term plan in July to replace almost every major component of the protocol over three to four years. Glamsterdam represents a nearer-term step in that broader effort, with developers discussing a potential gas-limit increase toward roughly 200 million following the upgrade.
The immediate distinction is that Sepolia’s higher limit is a testnet development, not a mainnet capacity change. No date has been announced for the Hoodi testnet, and no mainnet upgrade has been scheduled in connection with this announcement. Ethereum’s mainnet limit therefore remains at 60 million for now.
The next milestones are whether the higher limit can operate reliably under testing conditions, how future testnet deployments progress, and whether developers establish a timeline for mainnet implementation. Successful testing could strengthen the case for greater block capacity, but network propagation, validator resource requirements and real-world block utilization remain important considerations before any comparable change reaches Ethereum mainnet.
