The Ethereum community is preparing to close the Holešky testnet as it reaches its planned end. The network will soon be shut down following the finalization of the Fusaka upgrade. Within two weeks of this milestone, most validator nodes will stop operating. After that, development teams and infrastructure providers will no longer support Holešky.
It is a successor to the Hoodi testnet launched in March 2025. It is a new network that gives staking operators and infrastructure providers a platform where they can keep testing. Most groups have since moved operations to Hoodi in an attempt to work in a stable and up-to-date environment.
Network played a key role in Dencun and pectra testing
Holešky was launched in 2023. It was developed as a large public testnet of Ethereum to confirm validator work and staking infrastructure at a large scale. It was greatly instrumental in testing upgrades such as the Pectra upgrade and has even tested the Dencun update previously.
One thousand plus validators tested smooth core mainnet upgrade transitions along with core functionalities running on the network. But after Pectra’s enabling sometime early within the year 2025, Holešky was faced with severe challenges. Network inactivity leaks created a long queue to leave for validators.
While the chain did recover and finish, delays in exits made it difficult to confirm a full validator lifecycle. Issues illustrated Holešky’s weaknesses as a long-term testing environment. This situation was the impetus behind Hoodi’s design and deployment, which avoids these shortcomings by offering a clean validator set and solid forward support for protocol upgrades.
Ethereum developers shift testing to Hoodi and Sepolia
It’s a shift that concerns developers and will demand some adjustments of testing workflows. Staking operators and infra teams will need to use Hoodi to test validators. Application programmers, however, should move to Sepolia, still the main testnet to use to test decentralized applications and smart contracts.
Ephemery can still be used for quick and light validation testing with resets every 28 days. Holešky’s end marks a major era in Ethereum development. Upgrades stress-tested the network, uncovered vulnerabilities, and hardened the validation process.
What we have learned running it is now shaping Hoodi’s design and improving the ecosystem’s overall approach to testing. It ensures that Ethereum continues to progress with sound tools both for infrastructure providers and developers.
