Ethereum Increases Gas Limit to 60M, Scaling Base Layer Ahead of Fusaka Upgrade

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Ethereum Raises Block Gas Limit to 60 Million

Ethereum has executed its most significant base-layer scaling maneuver in four years, raising the network’s block gas limit to 60 million. The 33% capacity increase, ratified by validator consensus this week, marks a strategic shift from “L2-only” scaling to a hybrid model where the mainnet itself expands to support a surging ecosystem.

Expanded Capacity Backed by Technical Progress

This capacity hike is not a hard fork but a parameter adjustment coordinated by validators and researchers. It serves as the infrastructure pre-game for Fusaka (the combined Fulu-Osaka upgrade), scheduled for December 3. Engineers have signaled that client optimizations, specifically EIP-7623 have created strong enough “guardrails” around block size to allow this expansion without risking centralization or node crashes.

Record Throughput: The 31,000 TPS Benchmark

The move coincides with a massive liquidity stress test. Aggregate Layer-2 throughput hit a record 31,000 transactions per second (TPS) in the last 24 hours.

Leading this surge is Lighter, a specialized ZK-rollup for perpetuals, which clocked over 5,455 TPS—more than 50x the throughput of the Ethereum base layer itself. This data confirms Vitalik Buterin’s thesis: L2s are the speed, but a fatter L1 pipe is needed to settle their proofs.

Strategic Optimization Path Forward

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin suggested a shift toward more selective optimization. He indicated that future increases may link higher gas limits with increased costs for operations that consume heavier computation. Hence, developers expect a model that improves efficiency while avoiding unnecessary growth in block size.

Expect continued growth but more targeted and less uniform growth for next year, with one possible future being a 5x gas limit increase together with a 5x gas cost increase for operations that are relatively inefficient to process.

Market Response

Ethereum traded near $3,011 as of press time with a 24-hour increase of almost three percent. Moreover, the network’s market capitalization reached $363 billion as traders monitored rising activity and the approaching upgrade. The price trend reflects steady demand across a circulating supply of 120 million ETH.