On October 5, developers of the Ethereum consensus client Prysm released version 7.2.1. The update introduces a configuration that automatically sets the gas limit for validators to 200 million. This change is part of the preparations for the Glamsterdam activation in the Sepolia testnet, which is scheduled for October 6 at 13:53:36 UTC.
The previous version, 7.2.0, required manual configuration to reach the 200 million gas limit, as the default remained at 60 million. With the new release, the value is included in the GAS_LIMIT_SCHEDULE and applies automatically. This transition aims to test higher network throughput, although it increases performance requirements for nodes to process larger blocks.
The 200 million gas limit is a recommended default rather than a hard protocol constraint, and operators retain the ability to set custom limits. Due to EIP-1559, the actual block limit will increase gradually rather than instantly. The Glamsterdam update also integrates ePBS and Block-level Access Lists to enable parallel transaction processing.
Ethereum Foundation views these changes as a foundation for scaling layer-one capacity. The 200 million gas limit is currently restricted to the Sepolia testnet, with no fixed value determined for the mainnet. Following Sepolia, developers intend to test the update in the Holesky network, though a timeline for the mainnet launch remains undefined.
