Ethereum makes a new leap forward: the increase of the gas limit beyond 37 million boosts the network’s capacity, while the pressure from stakers intensifies to push up to 45 million. Let’s see what this record really means, who is requesting it, and how it could change the future of Ethereum.
What does the increase in the gas limit for Ethereum mean?
The function of the gas limit is central in Ethereum. It indicates the maximum cap of gas that can be consumed for transactions and smart contracts in each block. In concrete terms, the higher this limit, the more transactions can be included in each block of the blockchain: thus, it increases the throughput capacity, that is, the speed of the network.
Over the past weekend, Ethereum pushed the gas limit beyond 37 million, marking a breakthrough compared to the previous record of 36 million set in February. The increase is not trivial: it represents the first significant rise in months and comes in response to growing pressure from below, fueled by a genuine community campaign.
Who supports the run towards 45 million?
At the core of this shift is the campaign “pump the gas,” supported by a large portion of the community and the main validators. The key data comes from GasLimits.pics: 47.2% of the validators with Ether staked are in favor of further raising the gas limit, aiming for 45 million or more.
The main players in this push are the same operators who validate the blocks and who, thanks to staking rewards, have a strong interest in the infrastructural evolution of Ethereum. The tendency to increase the gas limit also stems from recent innovations in client software, which have made this level of scale more sustainable and secure.
What technical updates make this leap possible?
The increase in Ethereum’s scalability does not happen randomly. The community and developers have proceeded cautiously, as expanding the gas limit can involve risks in terms of security and hardware requirements.
However, in these months the improvements to the clients – primarily Geth, the most used by Ethereum nodes – have introduced important optimizations, particularly for archive node. These enhancements allow the nodes to handle higher loads without risking collapsing under the weight of new transactions, enabling the growth of the gas limit safely.
How much has the real throughput of Ethereum grown?
After the recent increase in the gas limit, the Ethereum network reached almost 18 transactions per second (TPS) over the weekend, surpassing the approximately 15 TPS after the previous upgrade in February. This is a substantial leap, with direct impacts on fees and the user experience of DeFi, NFT, and dApp protocols.
In parallel, overall activity is also growing: the daily transactions on the blockchain have exceeded 1.4 million, up from 1.1 million in April. The trend reflects an increasingly strong demand and growing confidence in the potential of Ethereum as a layer 1 for the crypto ecosystem.
Ether Price: rises by 54% in a month and surpasses 3,800 dollars
Ether, the native token of the network, also shows remarkable performance. In the last month, Ether has gained 54%, reaching a high of 3,800 dollars on Sunday, the highest level in the last seven months.
The push was given by institutional purchases from corporate treasuries and exchange-traded funds (ETF). This rally coincides temporally with the increase in the gas limit and with the new wave of network usage.
What happens now: risk of congestion or further boom?
The debate in the Ethereum community is heated. A too sudden increase in the gas limit can, on one hand, bring benefits in terms of capacity and less congestion. On the other hand, it can put pressure on less powerful nodes, pushing towards centralization and increasing the risk of technical issues.
However, the optimizations introduced are promising: scalability is increasing, as is the attractiveness for those developing decentralized applications. With almost half of the validators in favor of the increase to 45 million, the game remains open and the evolution will depend on how quickly the community can adapt.
How to monitor the next developments?
Two key variables remain to be observed: on one hand, the actual support of the validators and the technical capacity of the nodes to withstand further increases. On the other hand, the trend of activity on the network and the response of prices.
The future depends on…
The latest surge in the gas limit of Ethereum marks a phase of unprecedented technological acceleration. The balance between security, decentralization, and scalability will be the hot topic in the coming weeks. With Ether at its peak and the community divided between caution and the desire for growth, everything can change very quickly: follow the discussion, because the future of Ethereum is being written now.
