Ethereum’s network scaling is advancing as its gas limit surpassed 37 million units, with close to half of the validators endorsing a rise to 45 million units.
On Sunday, Ethereum’s throughput showed a notable increase, driven by the growing validator support for the gas limit expansion to 45 million. This upgrade aims to minimize transaction costs and improve the network’s scalability.
Data from Etherscan reveals the gas limit has climbed to over 37.3 million units, marking nearly a 3% increase from the previous week’s figures. Additionally, multiple blocks have been proposed with even higher gas limits reflecting this momentum.
This change is the most substantial adjustment since February when Ethereum’s gas limit was raised from 30 million to 36 million.
Enhancing Transaction Capacity
Increasing the gas limit directly boosts the transaction capacity on Ethereum’s layer-1. Validators can automatically modify the gas limit by approximately 0.1% per block when there is consensus for adjustment.
Ethereum’s transactions per second (TPS) have edged closer to 18 during the weekend, according to Chainspect, which is a significant uptick from the earlier 15 TPS observed after the last gas limit increase.
Validator Support Grows for Gas Limit Expansion
The recent gas limit increase coincides with a grassroots ‘pump the gas’ initiative, where almost 50% of staked Ethereum is signaling for a rise to 45 million or more.
Vitalik Buterin noted that almost exactly half of the stake voted to boost the Ethereum layer-1 gas limit to 45 million.
Currently, about 47.2% of staked validators back increasing the gas limit, evidenced by data from GasLimits.pics.
‘Pump The Gas’ to Reduce Fees
The gas limit defines the maximum amount of gas consumption allowed per block for transaction execution or smart contracts within Ethereum. Gas is the fee paid in Ether that powers these operations on the network.
Ethereum developers launched the ‘pump the gas’ campaign back in March 2024 to raise the gas limit initially from 30 million to 40 million, aiming to ease transaction costs on layer 1.
Vitalik Buterin also mentioned recent improvements by the Geth node client team, with optimizations for archive nodes, making such scaling efforts safer and more manageable.
Robust Growth in Ethereum Activity and Price
Ethereum’s network activity has consistently grown, with daily transactions climbing from roughly 1.1 million in April to about 1.4 million currently, as reported by Etherscan.
This increased network usage has paralleled a strong price surge, with Ether reaching a seven-month high over $3,800 recently, driven by rising interest from corporate treasuries and ETFs.
This development signals growing confidence and momentum within the Ethereum ecosystem, highlighting its ongoing evolution.
