⏱ 2 min read
Blocks sampled used 24%–43% of the new ceiling, and no mainnet gas-limit change is scheduled.
Ethereum’s Sepolia testnet activated the Glamsterdam upgrade on October 6, setting the sepolia gas limit near 200 million at epoch 353,024, more than three times mainnet’s 60 million, the report says. A commit tied the change to that epoch, a 6.4‑minute time marker that began at 13:53:36 UTC.
A snapshot cited in the report of 25 consecutive blocks on October 8, numbers 11,872,013 through 11,872,037, shows gas use between 47.1 million and 85.9 million, or roughly 24% to 43% of the new ceiling. That left most of the additional headroom unused in that sample.
Higher ceiling changes fees only when demand arrives
Gas measures computing work on Ethereum. Raising the per‑block limit increases how much work can fit in a block, but it does not guarantee more transactions. It expands room so that, when demand spikes, more work can be included without bidding wars escalating fees as quickly. When demand is low, blocks will not fill just because the ceiling is higher.
▼ 4.06%
Prices as of 2026-10-09 01:02 UTC. Source: CoinGecko.
Validator load and the path to larger blocks
Bigger blocks are tougher on validators that stake ETH to check and confirm them. Ethereum Foundation researchers previously warned that limits above 40 million could “fail to propagate as expected” across the network, so increases have come in small steps. One step was a 52%‑to‑48% validator vote in February 2025 to move the limit from 30 million to 32 million. The cap later rose to 60 million during 2025, and the Fusaka upgrade on December 3, 2025 made that the default, the report says.
Developers are also working on changes meant to carry more load. The report describes block‑level access lists, which record accounts and data each block touches so many transactions can be checked at once, and enshrined proposer‑builder separation, which would bring today’s external block‑building auction into Ethereum’s rules.
Sepolia is a practice network where tokens have no real value, and it previously hosted the Merge rehearsal in 2022. The report says there is no date yet for the Hoodi testnet and no mainnet upgrade is scheduled, so Ethereum’s main network stays at a 60 million gas limit for now.
Source: Decrypt.
This article was written with AI assistance and reviewed by an editor.
This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
🧠 HafidWatch Take
The sampled Sepolia blocks straddle mainnet’s current cap, implying the extra headroom matters only when load rises. Across the cited window, the gap between the highest and lowest gas used is 38.8 million. The evidence is a single testnet snapshot, so it does not show typical demand or what users would pay on mainnet.
Daily crypto intelligence. Before the market opens.
Including the Divergence Index — the sentiment gap no other newsletter tracks. Free, every morning at 7:30am ET.
✓ Free forever · ✓ No spam · ✓ 50+ sources monitored
