David Edwards
Ethereum’s mainnet throughput saw a notable increase this weekend, driven by a coordinated validator initiative to raise the gas limit—marking a pivotal step in network scalability and efficiency. According to Etherscan, the average block gas limit climbed to 37.3 million units on Sunday, reflecting a nearly 3% increase over late last week.
This rise is part of a broader community-led push to raise the gas ceiling to 45 million units, a move expected to unlock higher transaction throughput and reduce fees on Ethereum’s layer-1 blockchain. The last comparable adjustment came in February 2025, when the limit moved from 30 million to 36 million units.
With this latest increase, Ethereum’s base throughput ticked up to just under 18 transactions per second (TPS), a modest but meaningful improvement from the 15 TPS recorded at the previous adjustment point.
Validators Rally to “Pump the Gas”
The upward trend follows growing consensus among validators. As of Sunday, 47.2% of staked Ethereum is signaling support for the 45 million gas limit target. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin commented on the development, noting that “almost exactly 50% of stake” now supports the initiative.
The grassroots campaign—dubbed “pump the gas”—began in March 2024, aiming to raise the gas limit from 30 million to 40 million. Backed by developers and validator networks alike, the campaign seeks to improve network capacity without compromising node performance or decentralization. Recent updates to Geth, Ethereum’s most widely used node client, have introduced optimizations that make higher throughput safer and more manageable.
Network Growth Mirrors Ether Price Rally
Ethereum’s transactional volume has also seen a sharp increase. Daily transactions rose from 1.1 million in April to around 1.4 million, driven by renewed interest from institutional entities and fund products. This uptick has coincided with Ether’s strong price performance—gaining 54% in the past month.
Ether briefly surpassed $3,800 on Sunday, marking a seven-month high. The rally comes amid increased accumulation by corporate treasuries and exchange-traded funds, reinforcing Ethereum’s growing role in the institutional crypto landscape.
