Ethereum's development focus in 2026 is quietly shifting. According to industry discussions, although the L1 scaling target (300 million Gas level) has not yet been fully achieved, in order to meet the growing demand from institutional investors, the Ethereum core development team has begun to re-prioritize—allocating more effort toward finality improvements and privacy protection mechanisms.

This shift is driven by practical considerations: institutional capital entry requires faster transaction confirmation speeds and stricter privacy guarantees. It is understood that dedicated development teams are already working on these two areas. In other words, Ethereum is moving from solely pursuing throughput to balancing speed and privacy—preparing more deeply for institutionalized funding.