The Ethereum Foundation is recalibrating its scaling strategy, elevating Layer 1 development back to the center of its roadmap after years of deferring execution to Layer 2 rollups. The shift, outlined in the Foundation’s 2026 protocol priorities update, marks the most significant change in Ethereum’s strategic direction since the rollup-centric roadmap was adopted in 2020.
Ethereum Foundation Signals a Return to Layer 1 Prioritization
In a February 2026 protocol priorities update, the Ethereum Foundation laid out a revised roadmap that places L1 performance, security, and user experience alongside, not behind, its Layer 2 ecosystem. The update identified three pillars for 2026: scaling the base layer, improving end-user experience, and hardening L1 infrastructure.
As part of the restructuring, the Foundation formed a dedicated “Platform Team” to coordinate L1 and L2 development under a unified framework. The team’s mandate is to ensure that base-layer improvements, including gas limit increases, Verkle tree migration, and native account abstraction, are developed in tandem with L2 scaling rather than treated as secondary priorities.
This is not a rejection of rollups. The Foundation has framed it as a rebalancing, acknowledging that L1 had been allowed to stagnate while L2s absorbed nearly all execution growth.
Ethereum Ecosystem
~10×
More daily transactions on L2s vs. Ethereum L1
L2 networks now dominate execution volume across the Ethereum ecosystem, processing the vast majority of user transactions, a dynamic the Ethereum Foundation is now actively working to rebalance. Source: L2Beat
Why L1 Lost Ground to Rollups, and Why That Became a Problem
The rollup-centric roadmap, first articulated by Vitalik Buterin in late 2020, repositioned Ethereum L1 as a settlement and data availability layer. Execution would move to rollups, which could scale independently while inheriting Ethereum’s security. The logic was sound at the time: L1 fees were prohibitive, and rollups offered an immediate path to cheaper transactions.
Six years later, the tradeoffs are visible. The Ethereum ecosystem now hosts dozens of active L2 networks, each with its own bridging mechanics, liquidity pools, and user interfaces. Users regularly encounter fragmented liquidity, confusing bridging steps, and inconsistent experiences across chains.
Meanwhile, L1 mainnet throughput remained largely unchanged. Base fees during congestion periods still spike, and the gap between what L2 users experience and what L1 users face has widened. For an ecosystem that once prided itself on composability, the fragmentation across rollups has eroded one of Ethereum’s core advantages.
Community sentiment has shifted accordingly. Researchers and developers increasingly argued that a performant L1 is not optional but necessary, both as a fallback for users priced out of L2 bridging and as the composability layer that ties the ecosystem together. The broader crypto market has been navigating its own structural pressures, with Bitcoin facing a potential six-month losing streak heading into March 2026.
What the Strategy Shift Means for Ethereum’s Roadmap and Competitive Position
The practical impact centers on several concrete roadmap items that now receive elevated priority. Verkle trees, which reduce state storage requirements and enable stateless clients, are among the most significant. EIP-7702, which introduces native account abstraction at the protocol level, is another item the Foundation has flagged as central to the 2026 push.
Progressive gas limit increases are also on the table, aimed at raising L1 throughput without compromising decentralization guarantees. These incremental improvements feed into a longer-term ambition anchored by the Beam Chain proposal.
Ethereum L1 Roadmap Target
100,000 TPS
Layer 1 throughput target under the Ethereum Foundation’s revised strategy
Through a combination of the Beam Chain redesign, EIP-7702, Verkle trees, and ongoing gas limit increases, Ethereum L1 is targeting a step-change in base-layer capacity, shifting from a pure settlement layer back toward a scalable execution environment. Source: ethereum.org roadmap
The competitive pressure is real. Solana has made L1 performance its central selling point, attracting developers and retail users who value speed and low fees without the complexity of bridging between layers. Newer entrants like Monad are positioning themselves as high-throughput EVM alternatives. Ethereum’s pivot acknowledges that ceding all execution to L2s left L1 vulnerable to these competitors.
The institutional angle also matters. Privacy features and enterprise-grade L1 capabilities are part of the Foundation’s 2026 priorities, positioning Ethereum to capture institutional demand that requires base-layer guarantees rather than L2 abstractions. Meanwhile, regulatory developments in major markets continue to shape how crypto projects structure their ecosystems, as seen in South Korea’s evolving approach to crypto taxation.
Critically, L2 development is not being deprioritized. The Foundation’s Platform Team structure is designed to maintain parallel progress. Rollups remain central to Ethereum’s long-term scaling vision, but L1 will no longer serve as the neglected foundation beneath them. Traditional finance players are also watching closely, with firms like Strategy expanding their crypto treasury programs as institutional interest in blockchain infrastructure grows.
The next scheduled All Core Developers call is expected to formalize timelines for several of the L1-focused EIPs. Whether this strategic rebalancing translates into measurable L1 improvements in 2026 will depend on execution, but the directional shift is now explicit and institutionalized within the Foundation’s own organizational structure.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency and digital asset markets carry significant risk. Always do your own research before making decisions.