Ethereum crossed a new threshold in execution capacity as its mainnet block gas limit reached 60 million on November 25, marking the highest level the network has seen in four years and doubling base-layer capacity in a single year.
The adjustment was automatically applied after more than 513,000 validators signaled support for the increase, surpassing the 50% threshold required under Ethereum's consensus rules.
Ethereum Foundation researcher Toni Wahrstätter described the milestone as the culmination of a year-long community effort to expand transaction throughput at the base layer. The timing is notable: Ethereum faces its Fusaka hard fork on December 3, which will introduce PeerDAS and additional scaling infrastructure designed to multiply data availability for layer-2 networks.
The gas limit increase comes as the broader Ethereum ecosystem recently recorded transaction speeds exceeding 24,000 transactions per second across its layer-2 infrastructure, signaling accelerating adoption of scaling solutions.
What Happened
The gas limit increase 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 decentralized exchange swaps. Validators independently adjusted their node configurations to signal support for higher limits, triggering the automatic increase once the majority threshold was crossed.
Blockchain researcher Zhixiong Pan highlighted three converging technical improvements that made the increase viable: EIP-7623, which introduces protocol-level calldata cost adjustments to prevent worst-case block size scenarios; client optimizations across Nethermind, Erigon, and other implementations that enable nodes to handle 60 million gas blocks without performance degradation; and months of testnet results demonstrating stable block propagation within Ethereum's four-second consensus window under heavier loads.
The gas limit had remained at approximately 30 million for nearly four years before the community initiated efforts in March 2024 to increase network capacity. Ethereum developers Eric Connor and Mariano Conti launched the "Pump The Gas" initiative to rally validators, solo stakers, and client teams around the push for higher throughput. The movement gained momentum in December 2024 as validators began signaling increases, culminating in November 2025's activation.
Layer-2 scaling networks have recorded substantial growth during this period. According to GrowThePie data, the Ethereum ecosystem reached a peak of 24,192 transactions per second in recent weeks, with 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, with layer-2 solutions now accounting for approximately 95% of total Ethereum ecosystem transaction activity.
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Why It Matters
The gas limit expansion addresses a fundamental constraint on Ethereum's base layer at a critical juncture for scaling infrastructure. Higher gas limits allow more economic activity to settle directly on the mainnet, reducing congestion during demand spikes and providing headroom for decentralized applications to operate without excessive optimization for gas efficiency. For developers, this translates to cleaner code and faster deployment cycles as smart contracts no longer require extreme gas optimization to remain economically viable.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin indicated that future scaling will adopt a more targeted approach rather than uniform capacity increases. He suggested pairing additional gas limit expansions with higher costs for computationally expensive operations such as heavy precompiles, complex arithmetic opcodes, and specific contract calls. This methodology aims to preserve validator efficiency and network security while enabling effective block sizes to grow, ensuring that capacity increases remain sustainable without introducing new attack vectors or centralization pressures.
The timing relative to 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 blob data availability through sampling rather than downloading entire blobs, significantly reducing bandwidth requirements and enabling substantial increases in blob capacity.
Following Fusaka's main activation, Ethereum will implement Blob Parameter Only forks to gradually expand blob throughput. BPO1 will increase the per-block blob target to 10 and maximum to 15, with BPO2 further raising these limits to 14 and 21. The Ethereum Foundation hosted a $2 million audit contest from September 15 through October 13 on the Sherlock platform, co-sponsored by Gnosis and Lido, to identify vulnerabilities before mainnet deployment.
Final Thoughts
The gas limit increase to 60 million and the imminent Fusaka upgrade represent a coordinated push to scale Ethereum's infrastructure at both the base layer and the data availability layer. The network has moved from a cautious approach that prioritized stability over growth to a data-driven strategy backed by extensive testnet validation and client optimization work.
However, questions about long-term decentralization persist. Larger blocks require more powerful hardware for node operators, potentially creating barriers to entry that could centralize validation over time. Current data suggests the network remains stable, but some developers are already discussing a potential 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 also remains an open question. Some analysts argue that a more scalable base layer could reduce pressure on rollups, while others maintain it will strengthen the entire ecosystem by providing more robust 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.
Ethereum's development roadmap continues beyond Fusaka with the Glamsterdam upgrade planned for 2026, which may introduce faster block times and further gas limit increases. As the network targets 10,000 TPS at the base layer and millions of TPS across its layer-2 ecosystem within the next decade, the 60 million gas limit marks a significant checkpoint in Ethereum's ongoing transformation into a global settlement layer for decentralized applications.
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