Ethereum completes the final phase of Fusaka upgrade: How the data revolution is reshaping the future of Layer 2?

Ethereum developers completed the second and final “data block parameter adjustment” fork within the Fusaka upgrade cycle on January 8, 2026.

This upgrade increased the Blob target count per block from 10 to 14, and raised the upper limit from 15 to 21. As of January 8, Ethereum’s price on Gate was $3,126.13. With this technical upgrade completed, the foundation of the entire Ethereum ecosystem is undergoing a fundamental transformation.

01 Core of the Upgrade

On January 8, 2026, the Ethereum network completed a key upgrade. This BPO fork marks the culmination of the Fusaka upgrade cycle, specifically targeting adjustments to Blob parameters.

The BPO mechanism allows Ethereum to independently and flexibly adjust critical network parameters like Blob without waiting for large annual upgrades. This modular adjustment approach enables more controlled testing and deployment of network capacity.

The concept of Blob was first introduced in the 2024 Dencun upgrade, designed to provide low-cost data storage solutions for Layer 2 Rollups. Such data is automatically cleared after approximately 18 days on the Ethereum mainnet, ensuring data availability while avoiding state bloat issues.

02 Technical Breakthrough

The core adjustment of this BPO fork appears simple—raising the Blob target from 10 to 14, and the upper limit from 15 to 21—but its significance is profound.

This adjustment provides Layer 2 networks with more data space, helping to maintain stable transaction costs for Rollups amid increasing on-chain activity.

The real technological revolution is hidden in PeerDAS, introduced with the Fusaka upgrade. This innovation fundamentally changes how Ethereum handles data availability.

Traditionally, each validation node must download complete Blob data, which raises hardware requirements and limits scalability. PeerDAS allows validation nodes to verify data integrity and availability by sampling only a small portion of data randomly.

03 Market Impact

With the increase in the per-block Blob limit, Ethereum opens up broader data space for Layer 2 networks. This change directly translates into lower transaction costs and a more stable fee environment.

Andrew Gross, head of technical dissemination at the open-source blockchain explorer Blockscout, pointed out that this upgrade shifts Ethereum’s scalability from “process-driven” to “parameter-driven.”

Currently, Blob storage space is far from saturated, and the network can increase throughput simply by adjusting parameters. This shift brings stability to Layer 2 scaling network costs, expands data layer capacity, and enhances the system’s dynamic scaling ability.

Filipino Ethereum community developer evangelist Christine Erispe further explained that this means “the number of Layer 2 scaling network transaction batches processed per unit time will increase, or the marginal cost of data blocks will decrease while keeping transaction batch size constant.”

04 Layer 2 Ecosystem Transformation

Gas fees on leading Layer 2 networks like Base and Arbitrum have continued to decline, with some transaction fees dropping to around 0.001 cents—approaching “free.” This is not a short-term subsidy but a long-term trend driven by underlying technological upgrades.

When Layer 2s can store data on Ethereum mainnet at negligible costs, they naturally have the capacity to pass more profits to users.

This aligns with Vitalik Buterin and the Ethereum Foundation’s long-term strategy: positioning Ethereum mainnet as the “ultimate settlement layer” for Layer 2. Just like TCP/IP in the internet, users won’t interact with it directly for chatting or streaming videos, but all applications depend on it.

Ethereum mainnet will be similar in the future—ordinary users interact via Layer 2, and all Layer 2 transactions are ultimately settled on Ethereum mainnet, benefiting from its security and decentralization guarantees.

05 Future Roadmap

Although the Fusaka upgrade has been completed, Ethereum’s development roadmap continues. In 2026, the Glamsterdam upgrade is expected, followed by the Hegota upgrade.

Glamsterdam is scheduled for release in the first half of 2026, while Hegota is planned for deployment in the second half. This faster pace of protocol upgrades marks an important shift in Ethereum development.

Core contributors now favor more frequent network changes rather than bundling many upgrades into a single annual release. The main features of Glamsterdam will include block-level access lists and built-in proposer-builder separation.

For the Hegota upgrade, early discussions mainly focus on Verkle trees, a new data structure designed to help Ethereum nodes store and verify large amounts of data more efficiently.

06 Gate Perspective: Technological Upgrades and Market Opportunities

As a leading crypto asset trading platform, Gate continuously monitors technological developments in mainstream blockchains like Ethereum. The completion of the Fusaka upgrade, especially the increase in Blob capacity and the maturity of PeerDAS technology, injects new vitality into the Ethereum ecosystem.

As of January 8, 2026, ETH was trading at $3,126.13 on Gate. Recent price movements show ETH hit a low of $2,800.19 in early December 2025, then experienced a significant single-day increase upon the Fusaka mainnet activation on December 3, closing at $3,191.57.

Recent Ethereum price and trading volume data:

For users trading ETH and related Layer 2 tokens on Gate, understanding the long-term significance of these technological upgrades is crucial. Vitalik Buterin recently pointed out that with zkEVM reaching alpha stage and PeerDAS going live on mainnet, Ethereum is transforming into a more powerful decentralized network.

Investors should focus on projects within the Layer 2 ecosystem that can fully leverage Ethereum’s data availability improvements, as well as innovative solutions aimed at reducing user transaction costs and increasing accessibility.

Future Outlook

With the final step of the Fusaka upgrade completed, Ethereum’s data highway is fully open. The combination of increased Blob capacity and PeerDAS technology enables the Ethereum mainnet to provide near-infinite and extremely low-cost data availability for Layer 2.

The effects of this “data revolution” are already beginning to show. Transaction costs on mainstream Layer 2s like Base and Arbitrum are approaching negligible levels, and zero-knowledge proof Layer 2 networks like zkSync Era, StarkNet, and Scroll will also benefit in terms of privacy protection.

Ethereum is quietly transforming into the ultimate settlement layer for global decentralized applications, with users often unaware of the underlying technical complexity. This may well be the best state of engineering—“beneficial without awareness, difficult to sustain if lost.”