The Fusaka upgrade, the next major protocol enhancement for Ethereum following the Pectra upgrade in May 2025, activated on December 3, 2025. This hard fork combines the Fulu consensus layer improvements with the Osaka execution layer updates, focusing on enhanced scalability through features such as PeerDAS (which expands data blob capacity from 6 to 48 per block for better rollup efficiency), an increased block gas limit from 45 million to 150 million, and denial-of-service (DoS) hardening measures including a 16.7 million gas cap per transaction.
Key Highlights of the Pectra Upgrade
- EIP-7702 & Account Abstraction Revolution The headline feature, EIP-7702 (authored by Vitalik Buterin and team), replaces the older EIP-3074 and introduces a new transaction type that allows externally owned accounts (EOAs) to temporarily behave like smart contract wallets. In plain terms: your regular MetaMask address can now natively support paymasters, batched transactions, gas sponsorship, and session keys — all without migrating to a new contract wallet.
- Massive Blob Expansion (EIP-7691) The number of maximum blobs per block jumped from 6 to 16 (target) and 24 (maximum), effectively increasing Layer 2 data availability by ~300%. Early data shows average rollup fees on Base, Arbitrum, and Optimism have dropped 40–60% within weeks of activation.
- Staking Improvements (EIP-7251 & EIP-6110)
- Maximum effective balance for validators raised from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH
- Validator deposits now happen on-chain instead of via the deposit contract
- Introduction of “light” validators and delegation mechanisms, dramatically lowering barriers for solo stakers and staking pools.
4. Verkle Trees Preparation (EIP-6800 & others) While full Verkle Trees arrive later, Pectra laid critical groundwork by introducing new state expiry rules and vector commitment structures, reducing future node storage requirements by orders of magnitude.
5. Security & DoS Hardening Multiple EIPs raised the cost of storage operations and capped calldata size, making denial-of-service attacks significantly more expensive.
Real-World Impact (Observed December 2025)
- Average L2 transaction fees are now consistently below $0.02
- Daily active addresses on major L2s have increased 180% year-over-year
- Solo/home staking participation has grown from ~18% to over 31% of total staked ETH
- Smart contract wallets (via EIP-7702) now represent >25% of new address activations
The Road Ahead: Glamsterdam 2026
The next major milestone, currently targeted for Q2/Q3 2026, is the combined Glamsterdam upgrade (Glam for consensus layer, Amsterdam for execution layer). Core planned features include:
- Full Verkle Trees → stateless clients and dramatically reduced node hardware requirements
- EIP-7002 & further execution-layer account abstraction enhancements
- Proposer-Builder Separation (PBS) enshrinement
- PeerDAS 2.0 (peer-to-peer data availability sampling) for 100+ MB/s throughput
- Single-slot finality (currently ~15 minutes) reduced to ~12 seconds
Glamsterdam is expected to be the final major step before “The Surge” portion of Ethereum’s roadmap is considered complete, pushing sustainable throughput toward 100,000+ TPS across the Layer 2 ecosystem while maintaining full decentralization.
Final Thoughts
Pectra is not just another upgrade — it is the bridge that transforms Ethereum from a high-potential settlement layer into a genuinely user-friendly, scalable, and institution-ready platform. With Glamsterdam already in active development on the devnets, 2026 promises to be even more transformative.
The Ethereum of late 2025 is faster, cheaper, and more accessible than ever before — and the best is yet to come.
Author: Trent V. Bolar, Esq. (LinkedIn Profile)
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© 2025 Trent V. Bolar, Esq. | All rights reserved.
Ethereum Pectra Upgrade: The Most Important Hard Fork Since The Merge (and the Road to Glamsterdam) was originally published in The Capital on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
