Ethereum's Hegota 2026 upgrade set to balance the network's reliance on L2 solutions

Ethereum core developers have officially named the post-Glamsterdam upgrade ‘Hegota,’ combining the names of the execution layer, Bogota, and the consensus layer, Heze. The main Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) for Hegota is expected to be determined in February. 

In today’s all Core Devs meeting, Ethereum developers formalized Hegota to follow Glamsterdam later in 2026 as part of Ethereum’s twice-yearly upgrade cadence.

Like Ethereum, it is updated every six months, and starting in January 2026, a structured EIP selection process will be implemented. Its main goal is to increase the gas flow from 20 megagas per second to 60 megagas per second using EIPs such as 7904 and 7976.

Hegota is expected to balance the network’s reliance on L2 solutions

The upgrade is still in the early phases of planning. Developers said that the main Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) won’t be finished until February 2026. It will focus on putting Verkle Trees into action. These are a type of data structure that helps nodes work better by decreasing the need to store a lot of state data while still being able to validate blocks.

Developers are also considering adding state control. Its possible addition would make the network less reliant on L2 solutions.

The growing state bloat in Ethereum, which is caused by more transactions and smart contracts, has prompted worries about how well it can scale and how decentralized it is. New analysis shows that Layer-2 rollups like zkSync and Base handled more than 92% of all Ethereum transactions in 2025.

Last month, the organization detailed new work on an “Interop Layer” designed to make the Layer 2 ecosystem “feel like one chain.” It has also undergone changes in leadership, reorganization of its R&D department, and adjustments to its treasury. Fusaka’s rollout marked the start of its new twice-a-year hard-fork plan.

ETH on-chain data reveal a decline in network engagement

Despite encouraging technical advancements, Ethereum’s foundations are deteriorating in a major way. The number of weekly active addresses fell to just 324,000 in December, the lowest since May, from almost 440,000 earlier in the quarter. 

The number of transactions has also fallen to mid-year lows. This shows that fewer institutional and retail traders are participating.

Also, price pressure has grown because US spot Ethereum ETFs have stopped trading. SoSoValue’s data showed that there were more than $224 million in outflows in a row, largely from BlackRock’s ETHA fund.

Since mid-December, the total net assets of US spot ETH ETFs have dropped by more than $3 billion.

Whale wallets are also pushing the selling wave. On-chain data shows that they have recently sold over 28,500 ETH worth over $80 million. The 12% drop last week resulted in one of the largest liquidations in recent months, valued at more than $200 million.

Meanwhile, Ethereum remains below the $3k threshold. It has recorded a decline of 4% in the last month and 8.7% in the last week. However, in the last 24 hours, the coin has recorded a 2.9% rise, now trading at $2,959.

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