Ethereum's Fusaka Upgrade: Breaking the '21,000 Gas' Rule

The Ethereum network is set to undergo a significant upgrade in late 2026 with the Fusaka hard fork, which will break the long-standing '21,000 gas' rule that wallets and decentralized applications (dapps) have relied on for years. This rule refers to the minimum gas cost for a standard Ethereum transaction that transfers ETH from one address to another.

The upgrade, which includes the introduction of Ethereum Object Format (EOF) and PeerDAS, will alter the base cost of transactions, forcing wallets and dapps to adapt. According to the latest EIPs included in Fusaka, the intrinsic gas for a basic ETH transfer will increase from 21,000 to 26,000 gas.

The increase is designed to account for the additional computational overhead of processing EOF-format transactions and to maintain network security. Core developers argue that the change is necessary to support the new features and prevent potential DoS vectors.

Developers of wallets, block explorers, and dapps should review their code for hardcoded gas values and update them to reflect the new intrinsic gas. Users may experience temporary disruptions if their preferred tools are slow to update.