Ethereum developers will stop supporting Holesky after the launch of the new Hoodi testnet

The network will be available to ecosystem members until this September

19.03.2025 - 14:20

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What’s new? Ethereum blockchain developers plan to end support for the Holesky testnet in September 2025. Holesky, launched in September 2023, is one of Ethereum’s two main testnet networks along with Sepolia. It acts as a key testnet for staking, infrastructure, and protocol development.

Material by The Block

What else is known? Holesky encountered problems with the test deployment of the Pectra (Prague-Electra) upgrade, which led to many validators being disabled and the network failing to properly record transactions.

Developers were considering creating a shadow fork (temporary copy) of Holesky so that staking pools and application developers could continue testing their code ahead of the official Pectra release.

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Due to testnet issues, the rollout of the first phase of Pectra, previously scheduled for March, was pushed back tentatively to April 25. On March 17, the developers launched a new full-fledged Hoodi testnet that will allow testing of validator exit, which would have been impossible in Holesky due to a backup queue.

So, while the team has restored Holesky’s ability to complete transactions, the validator queue to exit staking is still full, limiting the ability to test certain scenarios.

In general, the discontinuation of testnet support is not unusual, Ethereum developers discontinued support for the Kiln, Ropsten, and Rinkeby networks in 2022, and Goerli support was discontinued in 2024.

Hoodi will therefore replace Holesky and allow validator testing by staking pool operators and infrastructure providers.

The developers agreed to keep Holesky operational in the short term. It is also allowed to transform it into the main device for experiments, such as increasing the gas limit and conducting stress tests of the protocol.

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