The Ethereum Foundation announced that the Holešky testnet has reached its scheduled end-of-life date and will be shut down shortly. According to the official update, the vast majority of remaining validator nodes on Holešky will be turned off precisely two weeks after the Fusaka network upgrade finalizes on the testnet. Following this shutdown, core client, testing, and infrastructure development teams will permanently cease support for the network, concluding its operational lifecycle as Ethereum's primary large-scale testnet environment.

Launched in 2023, Holešky was created to simulate staking infrastructure and validator operations at scale, enabling thousands of participants to stress-test protocol upgrades like Dencun and Pectra. However, following the Pectra upgrade activation in early 2025, Holešky encountered extensive inactivity leaks that produced a significant validator exit queue. Although the testnet recovered and regained finality, the long exit delays made testing the complete validator lifecycle impractical, leading to the deployment of Hoodi in March 2025.

With Holešky approaching its final sunset, the Ethereum Foundation outlined migration pathways for node operators and application developers. Staking providers and infrastructure engineers are urged to transition to Hoodi, which features a clean validator set, accommodates all Pectra functions, and is scheduled to activate future forks including Fusaka. Meanwhile, developers building smart contracts and user-facing applications are instructed to use Sepolia as their primary development testnet.

Once Holešky is decommissioned, Ethereum's core testnet structure will consist of three dedicated environments: Sepolia for application and tooling development, Hoodi for staking operator and validator testing, and Ephemery for lightweight validator testing with periodic resets every 28 days.