According to ChainCatcher, official sources indicate that ENS v2 will be deployed directly on the Ethereum mainnet, and development of its proprietary Layer 2 network, Namechain, will be discontinued.
This decision stems from the faster-than-expected scaling of Ethereum L1. Following the Fusaka upgrade in 2025, which will increase the gas cap to 60 million, ENS registration gas costs have decreased by 99% over the past year, with the average registration fee now below $0.05. nick.eth stated that despite halting Namechain development, the ENS v2 roadmap remains unchanged, and users will still experience features such as one-step registration, support for cross-chain stablecoin payments, and a completely new registry design.
The ENS team believes that staying at L1 eliminates the additional trust assumptions introduced by L2 and leverages Ethereum's strongest infrastructure guarantees. Currently, the new ENS App and ENS Explorer are in public alpha testing.
