Ethereum Blob limit surges to 21: scalability upgrade enters the fast lane

Ethereum has delivered a key milestone at the beginning of 2026. On Wednesday, Ethereum completed its second Blob Parameter Optimization (BPO) hard fork, officially increasing the maximum number of Blobs per block from 15 to 21. This upgrade is regarded by the industry as the opening move of Ethereum’s 2026 scalability roadmap, directly enhancing the data processing capacity of Layer 2 networks and laying the foundation for large-scale applications.

Core Changes of the Blob Upgrade

The BPO hard fork took effect at 01:01:11 UTC on January 1, 2026, involving two key parameter adjustments:

Industry consensus generally considers the target count (14) more meaningful in practice than the theoretical maximum (21). If the number of Blobs approaches the limit of 21 over the long term, it could strain node bandwidth and storage capacity. Therefore, 14 represents a balance point between performance and network health.

Actual Enhancement in Data Throughput

The immediate effect of the upgrade is clear. Each Blob unit can hold approximately 128KB of data, meaning a single Ethereum block can now carry up to about 2688KB of Rollup data. Compared to the pre-upgrade capacity of 1920KB, this represents a 40% increase in throughput.

What does this mean for Layer 2 networks? More transactions can be batch-processed and submitted within a single block to the Ethereum mainnet. This directly reduces Rollup costs, supports higher-frequency on-chain activities, and ultimately provides users with lower transaction fees and faster transaction speeds.

Significant Improvement in Mainnet Stability

The beauty of the Blob mechanism is not only in scalability but also in alleviating mainnet pressure. As more transactions are transferred to Rollup execution, congestion on the Ethereum mainnet decreases significantly. Data shows that since the first BPO hard fork implementation on December 9, 2025, Ethereum Gas fees have generally stabilized.

Related information also confirms this: Ethereum network activity has hit a record high, indicating that even with increased transaction volume, the network maintains good stability. Meanwhile, according to the latest data, ETH prices have experienced short-term fluctuations (currently at $3195.59, down 0.61% in 24 hours), but institutional investors’ holdings continue to grow, reflecting market confidence in Ethereum’s long-term prospects.

Roadmap Acceleration: From Blob to Parallel Processing

The current Blob upgrade is just the beginning. The Ethereum community is already planning more aggressive expansion schemes.

Near-term Plan: Increase Gas Limit to 80 million

At the mid-December core developer meeting, the community proposed that after the second BPO upgrade, the network’s Gas limit could be increased from the current 60 million to 80 million. This would significantly increase the number of transactions and smart contracts executable per block, further improving user experience and reducing average fees.

Long-term Goal: Glamsterdam Hard Fork and the Parallel Processing Revolution

More notably, the Glamsterdam hard fork is expected to be implemented later in 2026. This upgrade will raise the Gas limit to 200 million and introduce a “Perfect Parallel Processing” mechanism. Through the EIP-7928 block access list design, Ethereum aims to shift from a single-threaded transaction processing mode to multi-threaded parallel execution, greatly increasing overall transaction throughput.

This is a qualitative leap. Currently, Ethereum processes transactions essentially in a single thread, which limits throughput. Parallel processing will allow multiple transactions to execute simultaneously, as long as they do not interfere with each other (i.e., do not access the same data). This architectural improvement is expected to deliver several times the performance.

Market Response and Institutional Movements

From a market perspective, this series of upgrades is gaining recognition from institutional investors. According to related information, large institutions are continuously increasing their ETH holdings. For example, 7 siblings hold 252,000 ETH worth over $800 million, ranking 5th among all institutions. Bitmine Immersion Technologies’ total crypto assets and cash holdings reach $14.2 billion, including 4.1435 million ETH (about 3.43% of Ethereum’s total supply).

These figures reflect a long-term bullish outlook on Ethereum’s fundamentals. Institutions are unlikely to heavily allocate to projects with uncertain technical upgrades, and Ethereum’s clear roadmap and ongoing engineering progress are reinforcing this confidence.

Summary

From increasing the Blob limit, discussing Gas limit hikes, to the Glamsterdam parallel processing upgrade, Ethereum is systematically advancing its scalability upgrades. This technical path centered on Rollup, Blob, and parallel execution is gradually transforming Ethereum into a global settlement and execution network capable of supporting large-scale applications.

The current Blob upgrade has already demonstrated tangible effects: stable Gas fees, record-high network activity, and increasing institutional holdings. If subsequent Gas limit increases and the Glamsterdam upgrade proceed as planned, Ethereum’s throughput will see a genuine leap in scale. For the Layer 2 ecosystem and the entire Ethereum network, 2026 is destined to be a pivotal year for expansion.