Ethereum Just Slashed Its Scaling Woes—Gas Limit Jumps 100x in Make-or-Break Upgrade

After years of ’we’re working on it’ promises, Ethereum’s core devs finally pulled the trigger—gas limits just got a 100x multiplier overnight. No more pretending those $500 NFT trades were sustainable.

Why this matters: The blockchain that powers half of DeFi just sidestepped its biggest bottleneck. Validators are either popping champagne or sweating over potential chain instability (classic ETH drama).

The fine print: This isn’t magic. Higher limits mean more strain on nodes—basically betting that hardware can keep up with demand. Meanwhile, Wall Street still can’t decide if crypto is dead or the next big thing (spoiler: hedge your bets).

Bottom line: Ethereum just bought itself breathing room while L2s race to pick up the slack. Now watch gas fees drop… until the next bull run breaks everything again.

Why Ethereum wants to increase its gas limit by 100x

The idea ofdid not arise from a sudden whim. For several years,, while Solana and other fast chains attract users seeking smoothness. With, Ethereum aims to reverse this trend.

Specifically, the goal is toenabling up to 6,000 transactions per block. By comparison,in the best cases; after implementing this proposal, the network could, a genuine breakthrough.

According to Feist, the current gas limit adjustment mechanism, based on validator votes, “lacks coordination and predictability“.

The introduction of a predefined exponential growth would provide a clear trajectory adapted to hardware and software progress. As a contributor on X also points out:

100x means: 3.6B gas limit, 2,000 TPS, 6,000 transactions per block.

How Dankrad Feist’s EIP-9698 proposal works

The principle of EIP-9698 is based on. From epoch 369017 (around June 1, 2025), clients will automatically vote to.

The applied formula is simple: increase by a factor of 10 every 164,250 epochs (about two years). After two cycles, or four years, the network’s capacity would have multiplied by one hundred. This increase requires, only a modification of the clients’ default behavior, ensuring compatibility with older systems.

In his official text, Feist explains:

This exponential growth model guarantees a progressive but significant increase, allowing the network to adapt while aiming for ambitious throughput goals.

Users or node operators still retain the possibility to override this setting manually.

Risks and prospects of this scaling up

Even though the initiative is appealing, it is not without risks. A rapid increase in the gas limit could. A point Feist himself acknowledges:

A rapid increase in the gas limit could stress some nodes and prolong propagation times, but the very gradual exponential schedule gives developers time to adapt their software.

At the same time, this proposal arrives amid criticism of Ethereum’s Layer 2 strategy for having fragmented the ecosystem. Some believe that focusing on L1 (the main layer) rather than stacking second-layer solutions would restore clarity and efficiency to the network.

Note that other efforts are underway to improve Ethereum at its base. Thealready aims to, while the Pectra update is expected in May.

Faced with these major developments, the Ethereum ecosystem seems determined to remain competitive against Solana, Aptos, and emerging blockchains. EIP-9698 is a strong signal: Ethereum no longer wants to be just a testing ground, but to become the infrastructure of choice for Web3 users again.

While the EIP-9698 project could profoundly transform Ethereum, one question remains: will this bold default growth plan avoid the negative effects of congestion or technical collapse? The future of the network could well be played out at the pace of this exponential growth which could be paired with the fee reform requested by the community.

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