Ethereum’s long-awaited Fusaka hard fork reached a significant milestone on Tuesday with a successful deployment on the Hoodi testnet, which is the last stage of testing before its mainnet activation scheduled for December 3.

The Hoodi test, initiated at approximately 18:53 UTC, marks the final step in Ethereum’s three-phase simulation process, following earlier activations on the Holesky and Sepolia testnets.

Fusaka Upgrade

As per the Ethereum Foundation, the mainnet rollout of Fusaka is expected at least 30 days following Hoodi’s activation. The goal of this upgrade is to enhance Ethereum’s scalability, security, and cost-effectiveness, building on the improvements from the previous Pectra upgrade.

Fusaka incorporates a range of technical enhancements through over a dozen Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs). Notably, EIP-7594, or Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS), allows validators to inspect only specific portions of data, thus reducing bandwidth requirements and operational costs for both validators and Layer 2 networks.

Other proposals, including EIPs 7825 and 7935, aim to modify gas limits to bolster efficiency and prepare the network for parallel processing. Additionally, EIPs 7939 and 7951 will enhance performance and support for zero-knowledge proofs. These updates are designed to lower transaction expenses for users and developers while paving the way for improved rollup scalability.

Following Hoodi’s successful activation, Ethereum client teams, such as Nethermind, confirmed seamless progress, stating:

“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.”

Looking Forward

Consensys has also noted that the Fusaka upgrade “paves the way for parallel execution” and lays groundwork for forthcoming improvements. The phased rollout indicates that following the mainnet launch on December 3, an increase in blob capacity is anticipated by December 17, while a subsequent hard fork aimed at further expanding blob capacity is scheduled for January 7, 2026.

Ethereum developers are already focusing on the next upgrade, called “Glamsterdam,” which promises faster block times and additional scalability improvements. This upgrade will form part of the network’s ongoing roadmap under the “Surge” stage.

Despite these significant technical developments, the price of ETH has seen a slight decline, dropping nearly 3% in the last 24 hours and currently trading below $4,000.