Ethereum is set to retire its largest testnet, Holesky, marking a strategic shift in its development infrastructure. This move is part of a planned closure and migration to the newer Hoodi testnet, following a successful tenure and some past technical challenges. This transition paves the way for a more robust testing environment as Ethereum continues to evolve with significant network upgrades on the horizon.
Holesky's Sunset and Hoodi's Emergence
Launched in September 2023, Holesky served its primary purpose as Ethereum's major testnet for validating staking infrastructure and operations. It successfully facilitated testing for crucial protocol updates, including Dencun and Pectra. However, after fulfilling its planned end-of-life and having experienced "extensive inactivity leaks" earlier in 2025, the Ethereum Foundation is now decommissioning Holesky. Its official retirement will occur approximately two weeks after the Fusaka update is finalized on the network, expected in the latter half of September. Operators and infrastructure previously on Holesky are being migrated to Hoodi, a new test environment launched in March that already supports Pectra and will facilitate future protocol updates like Fusaka. For general smart contract and dApp testing, Sepolia is currently recommended as the preferred testnet.
Pioneering Future Upgrades: Fusaka and Glamsterdam
Looking ahead, Ethereum is gearing up for two significant hard forks. The Fusaka (Fulu-Osaka) upgrade, slated for early November, aims to enhance how rollups access data. By distributing data availability workloads more efficiently among network validators, Fusaka is expected to simplify node operation, boost network decentralization, and significantly improve Layer 2 scalability by enabling faster and cheaper transaction processing for rollups. Comprising 11 Ethereum Improvement Proposals, this update is a crucial step for the network. Further down the roadmap, the Glamsterdam update, under EIP-7782, is anticipated for 2026. This ambitious upgrade plans to halve block times to a mere 6 seconds and separate block validation from execution, providing more time for zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine proof creation.
