Vitalik Buterin’s 2026 roadmap – Inside Ethereum’s 5x gas limit increase, ‘targeted’ upgrades

Beyond the Fusaka upgrade scheduled for early December, Ethereum already has further scaling plans for 2026. 

In an X (formerly Twitter) post, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said he expects more “targeted growth” for a 5x gas limit increase next year. 

For those unfamiliar, increasing the gas limit would allow more transactions per second on a block. Hence, it would improve Ethereum throughput while keeping L2 fees lower. 

However, he added that heavy, inefficient operations will attract higher transaction costs, thereby avoiding overloading nodes with data storage demands. 

Impact of Ethereum scaling plans

As of November 2025, the Ethereum gas limit is 60 million gas per block. This hinted at a 2x increase from a year ago, when the community began calling for higher gas limits, noted Toni Wahrstätter, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation. 

In 2025, Ethereum successfully activated the Pectra upgrade. This enhanced validator activity, improved Layer 2 (L2) scalability, and improved the user experience of wallets. 

The final scaling goal this year will be the Fusaka upgrade, set for activation early next month. It aims to increase block gas limits and reduce node operations, which collectively would further increase throughput, reduce costs, and enhance capacity for the network. 

And, more could be unleashed with the planned “targeted” efficiency upgrades in 2026.

Ethereum vs Solana competitiveness

Scaling, scaling, and more scaling. However, to what end? Why is Ethereum aggressive scaling?

To catch up and remain competitive relative to Solana and other Layer 1 chains.

There is no doubt that Ethereum commands higher institutional trust, given its decentralized nature and a more battle-tested platform than Solana. 

However, Solana curved its path as the cheapest and fastest chain, proving its viability through the memecoin supercycle. Small traders could trade for a cent to the dollar, while Ethereum charged $10 for the same and could get out more expensive during periods of high activity.  

However, Ethereum (green line) has closed this gap over the past years. Its average transaction fees were cut by half in 2024 to around $5.

In 2025, Pectra and other changes brought it below $1. At the time of writing, it cost about $0.31 to transact on Ethereum – Still higher than Solana’s $0.0022. That being said, Ethereum’s aggressive plans will likely continue to close the gap in 2026

Final Thoughts

• 2025’s Pectra upgrade has improved throughput and L2 transaction costs. December’s Fusaka is expected to do the same too. 
• Ethereum’s scaling plans are likely to help it bridge the gap with Solana in terms of cost and speed.