Ethereum News Today: Ethereum's Toaster-Powered Scaling: The Tech Driving ETH Toward $80K

Ethereum's gas limit expansion and a series of technical breakthroughs are reshaping the blockchain's scalability narrative, with analysts speculating that the network's native token, ETH, could surge toward $80,000. The developments, driven by upgrades like the Pectra hard fork and innovations in zero-knowledge (zk) proof systems, aim to address long-standing bottlenecks while attracting institutional capital.

The Pectra Upgrade, implemented in May 2025, merged Ethereum's execution (Prague) and consensus (Electra) layers into a unified release, introducing key improvements to gas efficiency and network capacity according to technical analysis. Among its innovations, EIP-7702 enabled smart contract wallets to pay gas fees in tokens other than ETH, while EIP-7251 increased the validator staking cap from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH, reducing node overhead and incentivizing institutional participation. These changes align with Ethereum's roadmap for The Surge, a phase targeting sharding to further boost throughput. Post-upgrade, Ethereum burned ~38,000 ETH daily, tightening supply and fueling bullish momentum as ETH prices surged 20% to $2,200 in a single day.

A parallel leap in scalability came from zkSync's Airbender prover, which demonstrated the ability to generate full Ethereum Layer 1 (L1) block proofs using just two consumer-grade NVIDIA RTX 5090 GPUs. This achievement, confirmed ahead of Ethproofs Day, reduces hardware requirements from enterprise-level setups to a "toaster-sized" rig, slashing proving costs to $0.0001 per transfer. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin hailed the milestone but cautioned that worst-case proving times-up-to 60x slower than average-require gas repricing for resource-intensive operations like RSA verification. The breakthrough could enable "gigagas L1" limits, allowing Ethereum to process billions of gas units per block while keeping fees low.

The upgrades coincided with a surge in institutional interest, exemplified by the launch of 3x and -3x leveraged Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs by Leverage Shares in Europe. Despite a 21% November dip in ETH prices, the ETFs-trading on Switzerland's SIX Exchange-reflect growing confidence in Ethereum's deflationary dynamics and utility as a hedge against macroeconomic volatility. Meanwhile, spot ETH ETF inflows hit $1.13 billion in June 2025, with BlackRock and SharpLink leading accumulations.

The confluence of reduced fees, higher throughput, and institutional adoption has sparked speculation that ETH could reach $80,000. Layer-2 solutions like Arbitrum and Optimism, bolstered by expanded blob space, now handle over 60% of DeFi transactions, easing congestion on the base layer according to market analysis. Analysts note that if Ethereum's gas limit continues to rise-potentially to gigagas levels-daily transaction capacity could surpass 100,000, rivaling traditional payment systems. Combined with the network's deflationary burn rate and ETF-driven demand, these factors create a compelling case for sustained price appreciation.

Despite the optimism, hurdles remain. Regulatory scrutiny from the SEC looms over Ethereum's security classification, while competing chains like Solana and BNB Chain dominate high-volume transactions. However, Ethereum's roadmap-culminating in The Verge (2026) and The Purge (2027)-promises further optimizations, including data sampling and gas fee reductions according to development plans. Platforms like HIBT and HTX are also expanding access, with the latter's USDD stablecoin promoting cross-chain liquidity.

As Ethereum navigates these challenges, the stage is set for a transformative era. With gas fees projected to plummet and transaction speeds to rise, the network's appeal to developers and investors is poised to grow-potentially propelling ETH toward the $80,000 milestone.