In November 2025, the gas limit in the Ethereum mainnet blocks rose to a record 60 million, marking the highest level in the last four years. Over 516,000 validators supported this increase, surpassing the required threshold for the automatic protocol upgrade.
This is reported by Finway
Gas Limit Increase: Impact on the Network and Users
The increase in the gas limit allows for more transactions to be processed in each Ethereum block: from token swaps and transfers to executing smart contracts. This helps reduce congestion in the network during peak loads and enhances the throughput of the base layer, enabling more operations to be executed directly at the L1 level.
The mechanical expansion of block size was made possible by validators transitioning from the previous cap of 45 million gas to the new level of 60 million. This move is a response to community calls, particularly the Pump The Gas initiative, which was launched back in March 2024 by developers Eric Connor and Mariano Conti. They urged stakers, client developers, pools, and the entire ecosystem to contribute to scaling the network by increasing the gas limit.
Fusaka Upgrade and Looking Ahead
Changes are taking place ahead of a significant Ethereum upgrade called Fusaka, which has already been tested on the Hoodi network at the end of October and is scheduled for launch on the mainnet on December 3. The goal of Fusaka is to further enhance the scalability of the Ethereum ecosystem.
The community emphasizes that raising the gas limit to 60 million is just the first step. Ethereum Foundation researcher Toni Verštetter highlighted:
“Only a year after the community began advocating for higher gas limits, Ethereum is now operating with a gas limit of 60 million blocks. This is double what it was a year ago — and this is just the beginning.”
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin supported this assessment, noting that network performance will continue to grow, but this will be achieved through “smart adjustments” that will allow for increased throughput without creating new bottlenecks. According to him, Ethereum is moving towards more balanced scaling: blocks are getting larger, inefficient operations are becoming more expensive, and pricing mechanisms are being improved for the safe expansion of the network.
Earlier, Buterin also mentioned that Ethereum needs to “harden,” and major innovations should transition to second-layer (L2) solutions, contributing to the stability and security of the network.