Ethereum to Phase Out Holesky in September 2025
Ethereum developers have announced that Holesky, one of Ethereum’s main testnets, will be discontinued in September 2025. This decision comes as a result of the limitations encountered during the testing of the Pectra upgrade, particularly critical validation and validator output congestion issues.
Hoodi to Replace Holesky as Testnet
Starting from March 26, 2025, Hoodi will replace Holesky to ensure smooth testing before the deployment of Pectra on the mainnet. Hoodi offers a more stable environment for staking operators and developers. However, Holesky will still be maintained for specific tests, such as gas limit increases and protocol stress tests, but its usage will be restricted to technical experiments.
Holesky: An Essential Yet Limited Testnet
Holesky, launched in September 2023, quickly became one of Ethereum’s main testnets alongside Sepolia. It has been a key tool for infrastructure, staking, and protocol development tests. However, its future is now sealed, as Ethereum developers announced the discontinuation of its support in September 2025. Ethereum has previously deprecated several historical testnets like Kiln, Ropsten, Rinkeby, and Goerli. Holesky was meant to simulate a mainnet-like environment but showed its limitations during Pectra upgrade tests, leading to significant malfunctions.
Validation Issues That Compromise Holesky’s Usage
L’activation du testnet Pectra a révélé des problèmes chez les clients avec des changements de configuration des contrats de dépôt sur les testnets Ethereum. Alors que le rétablissement de Sepolia a été simple et que le réseau s’est entièrement rétabli depuis, Holesky a connu d’importantes fuites d’inactivité dans le cadre de son mécanisme de rétablissement.
During the Pectra upgrade tests, Holesky experienced critical disruptions that made it challenging to experiment with new features. Despite weeks of fixes and gradual restoration, problems persist. One of the main issues is the congestion in the validator queue, hindering smooth outputs and limiting certain testing scenarios. With validator outputs estimated to take more than a year, testing these features on Holesky has become impractical, significantly complicating the necessary simulations for staking operators and Ethereum infrastructures.
Hoodi: The New Testnet for a Smooth Transition
To overcome these limitations, Hoodi, a brand new testnet, has been introduced. Its mission is clear – to support Pectra tests with activation scheduled for March 26, 2025. This timeline allows developers and staking operators to make necessary adjustments well before the expected second-quarter 2025 deployment of Pectra on the mainnet. The Ethereum Foundation now recommends infrastructure providers and staking operators to adopt Hoodi for their validation tests. Hoodi aims to provide a stable and optimized environment for the implementation of upcoming network advancements.
Holesky Temporarily Maintained for Specific Tests
Although its official support will be discontinued in 2025, Holesky will not immediately disappear. Developers plan to repurpose it as a testnet dedicated to technical experiments, specifically for gas limit increases, a key issue for network scalability, and protocol stress tests to anticipate potential vulnerabilities before production. This secondary role could extend its existence within the Ethereum ecosystem, albeit restricted to developers’ experimentation.
