Ethereum to Shut Down 'Holesky' Testnet in September

Ethereum to Shut Down Holesky Testnet in September

The decision to end support was made after Holesky encountered issues while testing the upcoming Ethereum Pectra upgrade.

Margot Nijkerk | Edited by Sam Kessler Updated March 19, 2025, 15:20 UTC Published March 19, 2025, 15:07 UTC

Key points:

• Ethereum plans to shut down its largest testnet, Holesky, after problems occurred while testing the Pectra upgrade.
• The Ethereum Foundation (EF) announced in a blog post that the network will begin to shut down, with a full shutdown expected on September 30.
• The new Hoodi testnet, which was launched recently, will replace Holesky.

Ethereum is set to shut down its largest testnet, Holesky, after problems arose during testing of the upcoming Pectra upgrade.

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In a blog post on Tuesday, the Ethereum Foundation (EF) said the network, which is a controlled environment for testing Ethereum infrastructure and upgrades, will begin to wind down, with a full shutdown expected on September 30. The newly launched Hoodi testnet, which rolled out on Monday, will replace Holesky.

The decision to end support came after Holesky was taken offline due to a failed test of the upcoming Ethereum Pectra upgrade in February. It took several weeks for developers to restore Holesky, which was back up and running in March but suffered from residual issues — so-called “idle leaks” — that contaminated all of the Holesky validator hardware.

“[E]xited validators will be permanently removed from the validator set in about a year,” EF explained in a blog post. “The size of the exit queue does not allow Holesky to be used to test the full validator lifecycle in a reasonable time frame.”

Ethereum deploys testnets so that developers can test code changes before they are pushed to the Ethereum mainnet. Testnets effectively duplicate the Ethereum mainnet and allow development teams and infrastructure providers to test new software before launching it in a riskier environment.

Holesky was specifically built to test the Ethereum validator ecosystem — the stakers and node operators that keep the Ethereum network running. It was designed to simulate conditions close to the real thing, supporting a massive 1.4 million validators — more than Goerli, which Holesky replaced in 2023, and even the real Ethereum network.

Holesky is currently used by validators and staking providers, but the Hoodi network will serve a similar function in the future. Hoodi launched earlier this week and is set to test the Pectra upgrade on March 26. If the test is successful, the developers plan to bring Pectra to the Ethereum mainnet in 30 days.

“Members, this is your new testing ground,” said Tim Beiko, head of protocol support at EF, in a post on X.

Read More: Hello, Hoodi: Ethereum Welcomes New Testnet

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