Ethereum Upscales Gas Limit on Testnet, Can It Close the Gap with Solana?

Precedent & Market Context

Ethereum's price needs a 24% gain to reach $3,000, but institutional demand is dwindling, with ETF outflows accelerating and Bitcoin's rally pulling ahead. A continued Bitcoin rally is ETH's most realistic catalyst, but it must first break and hold above $2,807 resistance.

Main Event

Ethereum is quietly running tests that could reshape how much work its network can handle at once, but a bigger question looms: will any of it matter if the mainnet upgrade has no launch date and traders are already walking away? The Ethereum Foundation’s protocol team announced that the Ethereum Glamsterdam upgrade would be activated on the Hoodi test network on October 26 at 17:42 UTC.

Along with this upgrade, the gas limit for Hoodi will increase to 200 million, compared to about 60 million on the mainnet. This test network upgrade already went live on Sepolia, another testnet, which also uses the 200 million gas limit, on October 6.

Analysis & Market Impact

The gas limit determines how much work can fit into one block, so raising this limit allows more transactions to be included. Transaction fees fluctuate with demand, rising when more users want space in a block and falling when capacity is available. The first major change introduced in Glamsterdam is called proposer-builder separation, known as EIP-7732.

Under current rules, validators who propose a block often buy one from specialized builders through third-party middleware. Glamsterdam integrates this process into Ethereum’s core rules, allowing direct payments to the proposer. This change aims to reduce dependence on external services and give validators more time to verify each block. The second new feature is block-level access lists, outlined in EIP-7928.

These lists record which accounts and storage each block interacts with, similar to providing a shopping list before checkout. This allows multiple processors to work simultaneously, making it easier for Ethereum’s client software to read data and validate transactions in parallel, thereby managing larger blocks more efficiently. Additionally, Glamsterdam introduces a new gas pricing structure.

EIP-8037 raises the cost of creating new state, meaning new permanent data saved on the blockchain. The foundation cautions that contracts relying on fixed gas limits might need adjustments.

Implications & Outlook

A testnet cap shows how well client software can handle increased capacity under controlled conditions, while validators adjust mainnet limits separately over time. There’s also no guarantee that the mainnet upgrade will be extended to the 200 million gas limit. The Ethereum Foundation has not committed to extending this limit to the mainnet, leaving the mainnet timeline open-ended. A continued lack of clarity on the mainnet upgrade date and the uncertainty surrounding the mainnet gas limit may deter traders from taking action.

Ethereum is testing blocks over 3 times bigger on its Hoodi test network. The mainnet upgrade date remains uncertain, and traders are already walking away. The gas limit for the Hoodi test network will increase to 200 million, compared to about 60 million on the mainnet. The mainnet upgrade may not extend to the 200 million gas limit. * The Ethereum Foundation has not committed to extending the mainnet gas limit to the 200 million limit.