Ethereum’s much-anticipated Fusaka hard fork reached a major milestone on Tuesday with a successful deployment on the Hoodi testnet – its final testing phase before mainnet activation later this year. The test, which went live around 18:53 UTC, was the completion of Ethereum’s three-stage simulation process following earlier activations on the Holesky and Sepolia testnets.
Fusaka Upgrade: Enhancing Scalability and Efficiency
According to the Ethereum Foundation, Fusaka’s mainnet rollout is expected at least 30 days after Hoodi’s activation, with developers tentatively targeting December 3. The main objective behind the upgrade is to strengthen Ethereum’s scalability, security, and cost efficiency, building on the groundwork laid by April’s Pectra upgrade.
Fusaka introduces a series of technical improvements spanning more than a dozen Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs). Leading the list is EIP-7594, or Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS), which enables validators to verify only portions of data, rather than entire “blobs,” and significantly reduces bandwidth demands and operational costs for validators and Layer 2 networks.
Other proposals, such as EIPs 7825 and 7935, will adjust gas limits to improve efficiency and prepare the network for parallel execution. Meanwhile, EIPs 7939 and 7951 aim to boost performance and zero-knowledge proving support. These upgrades are designed to lower transaction costs for users and developers while setting the stage for the next phase of rollup scaling.
Ethereum client teams confirmed smooth progress following Hoodi’s activation. Nethermind stated:
“The Ethereum 𝗛𝗼𝗼𝗱𝗶 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗸 has been successfully completed and is now running seamlessly on the 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁. Another smooth upgrade, another key milestone on the road to Fusaka. Big thanks to everyone in the ecosystem who helped make it happen – from client teams to researchers and operators.”
The Road Ahead: Phased Rollout and Future Enhancements
Consensys also announced that Fusaka “paves the way for parallel execution” and lays the foundation for future network advancements. The rollout will proceed in phases. Following the mainnet launch scheduled for December 3, blob capacity increase is expected on December 17. A second hard fork to further expand blob capacity is slated for January 7, 2026.
Ethereum developers have already turned their focus to the next upgrade, dubbed “Glamsterdam.” This upcoming upgrade is expected to introduce faster block times and further scalability enhancements, falling under the “Surge” stage of the network’s roadmap.
Meanwhile, ETH’s price remained fairly unfazed by the technical development. The altcoin recorded a fresh decline of almost 3% over the past 24 hours and is currently trading below $4,000.