Ethereum Upgrades Shift ENSv2 Away From Layer-2 Path

Crypto News Blockchain

Written by Aaron S.,

Editor-In-Chief

Last Updated: February 09, 2026

Key Takeaways

ENS drops its Layer-2 plan after major gas fee cuts and growing Ethereum capacity make L1 strong enough for ENSv2 needs;
Ethereum’s gas limit doubled in 2025 and may reach 200 million in 2026, which removes the need for a separate Namechain network;
ENS continues ENSv2 work on registry changes, a new ownership model, and improved name expiration without launching an L2.

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Ethereum Upgrades Shift ENSv2 Away From Layer-2 Path

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ENS, an Ethereum ETH $2,014.02 domain name provider, dropped its plan to introduce a separate Layer-2 network in the ENSv2 upgrade.

A blog post from ENS lead developer nick.eth explained the shift. He said gas fees for ENS registrations fell by “99%… over the past year” because of recent improvements to Ethereum.

He noted that the Fusaka upgrade raised the gas limit to 60 million, which doubled the limit from the start of 2025.

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He added that core developers aim for a 200 million gas limit in 2026, which would triple today’s capacity even before new ZK features arrive.

ENS introduced the Namechain idea in November 2024. The goal was to make registrations cheaper and simpler by placing them on rollups. At the time, it seemed necessary to use an L2 to reduce costs and align with the ecosystem.

nick.eth stated that L1 now offers enough scale to support ENS without a separate chain. He said Namechain made sense when Ethereum did not expect major base-layer improvements, but that assumption no longer applies.

With Namechain removed from the plan, the ENS team continues to work on ENSv2. The upgrade includes changes to the registry design, a new ownership model, improved expiration handling, and a system in which each name has its own registry.

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