EigenLayer Update: Holesky Network Instability and Upcoming Sepolia Support

What is happening?

Last week, as the Ethereum Core Developer team rolled out their Pectra Upgrade, the Holesky test network began experiencing instability, which has impacted developers’ ability to test applications, rollups, and services deployed on the EigenLayer protocol. Holesky’s block times have slowed, RPC access and accuracy have been inconsistent, and the Beacon Chain has experienced long periods of non-finality. The Ethereum Core Developer team identified that this finalization problem was attributed to a misconfiguration in major execution clients, including Besu, Nethermind, and Geth, leading to a chain split on Holesky. Developers have addressed the misconfiguration, but the network's performance has remained degraded, and the Ethereum Foundation announced it is not expected to return to finality for up to a month. 

EigenLayer has been working closely with the Ethereum Core developers to understand and minimize the impact of Holesky instability and provide developers with reliable Testnet environments while the issues are resolved. EigenLayer’s protocol on Holesky Testnet has experienced degraded performance, and EigenPod functionality has been paused. Because of Holesky’s recent instability, EigenLayer and EigenDA have decided to launch on the Sepolia Network to take advantage of the stronger developer experience and stable environment it provides for dapps and rollups alike. EigenLayer will continue to support Holesky as it stabilizes for end-to-end protocol testing, and moving forward, we plan to maintain both Holesky and Sepolia Testnets to ensure redundancy and developer choice.

Why Launch EigenLayer on Sepolia?

EigenLayer and EigenDA selected Sepolia because it is the go-to dapp development environment on Ethereum. This will provide AVSs a better environment for testing their experiences alongside their customers and integration partners. EigenLayer believes Sepolia will accelerate AVSs development and drive demand. 

When can AVSs get started using EigenLayer on Sepolia?

Our Sepolia testnet will be available the week of March 10, 2025. When it is live, we will communicate its readiness in all of our developer channels. Developers will be able to join the Sepolia Testnet at that time using docs.eigenlayer.xyz. Contract addresses will be shared in the public metadata repository. 

When can L2s get started using EigenDA on Sepolia?

EigenLayer on Sepolia now enables rollups to test EigenDA without deploying on Holesky. We will deploy a public devnet on Sepolia with a managed operator set, which will be operated by our team, and start migrating rollups to this environment. EigenDA is targeting becoming available on Sepolia Testnet by late April.

Next Steps

Look out for updates on when Sepolia is live on EigenLayer and EigenDA. Users can always reach out on Forum or Discord to ask any questions. We welcome community input in improving our user experience.

FAQs

How does the Holesky issue affect native ETH restaking testing?

If you are an LRT, exchange, custodian, or wallet partner relying on Holesky to test native (beacon chain) ETH restaking, please note that this functionality is currently unavailable on the Holesky Testnet. The Ethereum Foundation shared that we can expect Holesky to be back to finality later this month. In the meantime, the Ethereum Foundation is mirroring Holesky onto a new “shadow” Testnet, where EigenLayer will be available. The state will mirror Holesky’s, and end-to-end testing will be possible. EigenLayer will continue to communicate to its users around this resolution.

Will EigenLayer continue to run on Holesky?

Yes, EigenLayer will continue to support Holesky Testnet as it stabilizes for end-to-end protocol testing. Holesky is the best test network for developers building atop native restaking, EigenPods, validator infrastructure, and those moving toward production. EigenLayer will continue to work with the Ethereum Core Developer team to ensure we are taking the proper steps for the continuity of Holesky.

Will EigenDA continue to run Holesky?

Yes, we will keep the current Holesky Testnet environment and monitor the network closely to maintain its liveness as much as possible. Holesky will continue to serve as the testing environment for permissionless operator sets and EigenDA releases.

Will the marketplace UI support Sepolia deployments?

The marketplace UI will initially not be available on Sepolia; however, its deployment will be considered and prioritized based on customer demand. If your team requires the marketplace UI on Sepolia, please reach out to us directly to express your needs.