Ethereum Makes Major Scaling Gains as LeanVM Prepares for Key Milestones

Key Highlights

• Ethereum’s leanVM update reduces costs and speeds up recursion.
• Vitalik Buterin highlights 2025 milestones for scaling and decentralization.
• LeanVM introduces new ZK-friendly architecture for safer growth.

Ethereum LeanVM Update Promises Faster Scaling and Lower Costs

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the network has made significant progress in 2025 toward long-term scalability, decentralization, and sustainability.

He highlighted leanVM, a minimal zero-knowledge proof virtual machine (zkVM), as a key innovation designed to reduce costs and improve efficiency. This new virtual machine is optimized for XMSS aggregation and recursion, features a four-instruction ISA, uses multi-line STARKs, and incorporates logup-lookups cryptography to cut commitment costs compared to Cairo.

The current recursion speed is 2.7 seconds, and the team aims to increase this tenfold.

LeanVM Milestones and the Roadmap

Ethereum has already completed the Pectra update on the mainnet as of May 7, 2025. Buterin emphasized that leanVM deliberately lags slightly behind short-term scaling milestones so it can be fully prepared when the new features are live.

The update focuses on simplicity in protocol design, minimizing code complexity while maintaining robustness and reliability. Buterin described protocols as carefully crafted tools, not something to rush, ensuring they are clean, efficient, and long-lasting.

Long-Term Benefits for Ethereum

The leanVM update is expected to:

• Reduce costs for large-scale computations.
• Speed up recursion for ZK-proof computations.
• Maintain network decentralization and security.

These improvements position Ethereum for sustainable growth and set the stage for future innovations in zero-knowledge proofs and scalable blockchain solutions.