Overview Ethereum's developer community is tracking the next hard fork, code-named Glamsterdam, because it reaches beneath the surface into how the mainnet builds, prices, and validates blocks. AccordOverview Ethereum's developer community is tracking the next hard fork, code-named Glamsterdam, because it reaches beneath the surface into how the mainnet builds, prices, and validates blocks. Accord
Ethereum's Glamsterdam Upgrade: The Overhaul Rewiring How the Mainnet Builds Blocks
Overview
Ethereum's developer community is tracking the next hard fork, code-named Glamsterdam, because it reaches beneath the surface into how the mainnet builds, prices, and validates blocks. According to the official Ethereum roadmap page, the upgrade is designed to scale the base layer (L1) again by reorganizing transaction processing and database management, clearing the path for high-throughput parallelization. Multiple client teams describe it as the largest protocol change since the 2022 Merge.
For markets, the significance lies in a shift of narrative. Where recent upgrades handed scaling to Layer 2 networks and rollups, Glamsterdam pulls attention back to the base layer itself. That pivot speaks directly to how value accrues to ETH, which is why investors, validators, and protocol developers are watching it together.
Key Takeaways
Glamsterdam merges the consensus-layer upgrade Gloas with the execution-layer upgrade Amsterdam, shipping together as one network upgrade.
Two headline proposals anchor the scope: EIP-7732 (Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation, ePBS) and EIP-7928 (Block-Level Access Lists, BALs).
An accompanying gas-repricing package aims to align fees more closely with the real resource cost of each operation.
The Ethereum Foundation has set a 200-million gas limit target floor, more than triple the current ~60 million.
Timing has slipped from an original H1 2026 window to Q3 2026, with some teams citing end of August as an internal target.
Ordinary ETH holders need to take no action; validators and node operators must update both consensus- and execution-layer clients before mainnet activation.
What Happened: A Deeper Overhaul Than Fusaka
The name and the positioning
Ethereum has historically named hard forks by pairing a star name with the city that hosted the most recent Devconnect conference. Glamsterdam blends Gloas (the consensus-layer component, named after a star) and Amsterdam (the execution-layer component, named after the city). The naming itself signals the dual nature of the fork: it changes both layers at once rather than optimizing a single point.
According to Datawallet's technical breakdown, Fusaka, which shipped in December 2025, scaled rollup data availability through PeerDAS, whereas Glamsterdam is more fundamental, rewriting how Ethereum builds, prices, and validates blocks.
In the final development phase
Per CoinDesk's reporting, developers entered the final development phase in June 2026, running multi-client devnets containing the full slate of planned EIPs, the last stage before the codebase is hardened and shipped to public testnets. Ethereum Foundation core developer Parithosh Jayanthi described it as the largest fork since the Merge, adding that it will change many assumptions about how Ethereum works.
Why Markets Are Reacting: ePBS and Parallel Execution
EIP-7732: moving block-building into the protocol
Today, roughly 80–90% of Ethereum blocks are not built by the validators who propose them. Proposers outsource construction to specialized builders through off-protocol relays such as MEV-Boost. The arrangement works, but it inserts trusted intermediaries into the heart of block production and concentrates power in a handful of relays.
Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation (ePBS), defined in EIP-7732, writes that relationship into the protocol itself, replacing reliance on external relays with in-protocol bids, commitments, and payments. According to Ethereum's documentation, the mechanism also extends the data propagation window from roughly 2 seconds to about 9 seconds, unblocking the network's ability to safely handle much higher throughput. It is also the hardest part of the upgrade: splitting block production into two parties acting in sequence forces the protocol to handle non-delivery or disagreement between them.
EIP-7928: block-level access lists and parallel processing
Ethereum currently runs the transactions in a block one after another, because no node knows which accounts and storage slots a transaction will touch until it executes. That serial bottleneck caps how much computation safely fits in a block.
Block-Level Access Lists (BALs) attach an upfront map to every block, declaring in advance which accounts and storage keys its transactions will access, along with the resulting post-execution state values. With that map available, clients prefetch state in parallel and process non-overlapping transactions at the same time rather than replaying them in order. According to Everstake's analysis, this creates the conditions for parallel execution and a higher block gas limit. Users who want to follow the live price of ETH and other major assets can track it on the MEXC markets page.
The Key Data and Announcements
A 200M gas limit and throughput target
According to CoinMarketCap, the Ethereum Foundation confirmed the upgrade would slip to Q3 2026 and set a 200-million gas limit target floor, a significant jump from the current ~60 million that the Foundation described as reaching a credible post-upgrade target. Several industry analyses point to a theoretical throughput ceiling of roughly 10,000 transactions per second, but that figure is best read as an upper bound under highly optimized conditions, not a steady-state outcome on day one.
What the gas repricing really means
The accompanying gas-repricing package (proposals such as EIP-8037 and EIP-7904) is not a blanket fee cut. Its logic is to measure more accurately how much immediate compute a transaction consumes and how much long-term storage burden it imposes, then align the cost of different operations with their true physical cost. According to KuCoin's explainer, for ordinary users the outcome points toward potentially lower and more stable fees rather than every transaction becoming instantly cheaper.
The timeline
Per IG's technical review, the upgrade originally targeted June 2026 and was pushed back after the Soldøgn interop devnet concluded on 2 May 2026, with Q3 (some teams cite end of August) now the base case and no specific block height confirmed. The meta specification coordinating the upgrade's scope, EIP-7773, remains in Draft status, meaning the direction is set but the details are not yet locked. Public testnet activations, such as Sepolia and Hoodi, are viewed as the clearest leading indicator that mainnet is imminent.
What It Means for Investors
For the vast majority of holders, Glamsterdam requires no action, as wallet addresses, balances, and user-facing interfaces are unaffected. According to Ethereum's own guidance, anyone instructing you to "upgrade" your ETH is attempting a scam. The parties that must act are validators and node operators, who need to update both consensus- and execution-layer clients before mainnet activation and support the new attestation duty introduced by EIP-7732.
At the market-structure level, Figment's analysis for institutional stakers notes the upgrade also improves exit liquidity for large staked positions. Under high demand, what might have taken weeks to clear the exit queue could be processed in a matter of days, a meaningful reduction in operational risk for institutional operators.
On the supply side, on-chain data cited by IG shows roughly 475,000 ETH left major exchanges between 4 and 7 June 2026, a notable accumulation signal, while about 30% of circulating ETH sits staked and locked, structurally reducing sell-side supply. As always, past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
What to Watch Next
The most direct leading indicator is public testnet progress. According to Everstake, the activation of Sepolia and Hoodi and whether stability holds across multiple epochs is the key window for judging the mainnet date. Beyond that, how the gas repricing behaves under realistic mainnet-scale load, and whether all clients reach feature parity, are the core variables to track.
On a longer horizon, Glamsterdam is followed by an upgrade code-named Hegotá, which brings FOCIL (Fork-Choice Inclusion Lists) for censorship resistance and Verkle Trees, which could sharply reduce node storage requirements. FOCIL was moved out of Glamsterdam precisely to avoid too much untested interaction with ePBS in a single upgrade.
The Potential Risks
The primary risk is timing. According to Everstake's assessment, three factors could push activation into Q4 2026 or later: ePBS implementation complexity, which is the main bottleneck to testnet readiness; cross-client feature parity; and validating the gas repricing under real-scale load.
The second is the "sell-the-news" effect. Per IG, historical data shows ETH tends to rally ahead of major upgrades and pull back 10–15% in the days after activation as pre-positioned capital takes profit. More fundamentally, Glamsterdam does not on its own resolve the structural challenge of L2 fee cannibalization; the debate over how value accrues to ETH still depends on later upgrades and real usage data.
Users looking to follow ETH markets through the upgrade window and study shifts in market structure can view spot and futures data on MEXC.
Exclusive View from the MEXC Crypto Pulse Research Team
What actually matters about Glamsterdam is not the widely circulated "10,000 TPS" performance figure, but the directional swing it represents in Ethereum's scaling narrative, from handing throughput to rollups back toward scaling the base layer itself. That pivot goes straight to ETH's value-accrual logic: if the mainnet can host more activity at lower cost, value is more likely to settle back on L1.
The easiest misread is treating the 200M gas limit and 10,000 TPS as guaranteed, day-one outcomes. In reality, gas limit is not the same as TPS; the former is a capacity ceiling, the latter depends on transaction mix, execution time, and propagation constraints. 200M gas is a direction the network can gradually approach, not the state at activation. The projected fee reductions are equally prone to overstatement: repricing is about aligning cost with reality, not cutting fees across the board.
For investors, the most worthwhile thing to watch next is not price but two engineering facts: whether public testnets hold stable across multiple epochs, and whether clients reach parity on schedule. Both foreshadow the mainnet date more reliably than any price forecast.
In a broader cross-asset frame, Glamsterdam is a case study in how infrastructure shapes an asset's narrative: whether a chain can win back activity diverted to L2 ultimately turns on architectural tradeoffs. The wider lesson for crypto and fintech is that genuine repricing tends to begin at the protocol layer before it reaches price.
FAQ
Q: Do I need to do anything as an ETH holder?
A: No. The upgrade does not change wallet addresses, balances, or any user interface. Any message telling you to "upgrade your ETH" should be treated as a scam.
Q: When does Glamsterdam go live on mainnet?
A: The current base case is Q3 2026, with some teams citing end of August, but no block height is locked. Public testnet activation is the clearest signal that mainnet is near.
Q: Will the upgrade sharply cut gas fees immediately?
A: It points more toward potentially lower and more stable fees than an across-the-board instant cut. Repricing aims to align fees with real resource cost.
Q: What do ePBS and BALs each solve?
A: ePBS (EIP-7732) moves block-building into the protocol and reduces reliance on off-chain relays; BALs (EIP-7928) let non-conflicting transactions run in parallel by pre-declaring state access.
Disclaimer
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment, financial, legal, tax, or trading advice, nor any recommendation. Prices of crypto assets, equities, and related financial assets can be highly volatile, with the risk of total loss of principal. Readers should do their own research (DYOR), assess their own risk tolerance, and consult a licensed professional where appropriate. The MEXC Crypto Pulse Team accepts no liability for any loss arising from the use of information in this article.
About the Author
The MEXC Crypto Pulse Team focuses on crypto market trends, on-chain narratives, fintech developments, and digital asset ecosystem research. The team tracks public market data, company announcements, third-party market platforms, and industry news sources to help users better understand market structure, risks, and opportunities.
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The articles shared on this page are sourced from public platforms and are provided for reference only. They do not represent the position or views of MEXC. All rights belong to James Mitchell. If you believe any content infringes upon the rights of a third party, please contact service@support.mexc.com for prompt removal. MEXC does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of any content and is not responsible for any actions taken based on the information provided. The content does not constitute financial, legal, or other professional advice, nor should it be interpreted as a recommendation or endorsement by MEXC. For expert insights and in-depth analysis, visit MEXC Learn.
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