Ethereum

Core

Value

Merge

Glamsterdam, <a href="https://x.com/ethereum" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">@ethereum</a>'s next major hard fork, has reached its final devnet stage with ten Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) locked in. <cite>Core developers call it the most significant protocol change since The Merge.</cite>
<h2 id="two-eips-driving-the-upgrade">Two EIPs Driving the Upgrade</h2>
Two proposals sit at the heart of the upgrade. <cite>Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation (ePBS), defined in EIP-7732, integrates the block-building process directly into the Ethereum protocol.</cite><cite>This removes the current 80 to 90 percent reliance on third-party relays like MEV-Boost, reducing centralization risks and ensuring a fairer, more transparent distribution of Maximal Extractable Value (MEV).</cite>
The second headliner is EIP-7928, Block-Level Access Lists (BALs). <cite>Block-level Access Lists let blocks declare the accounts and state they will touch, enabling faster parallel execution and raising the L1 transactions-per-second ceiling.</cite>
Beyond the two headliners, <cite>the package also contains EIP-7708 (ETH transfers and burns emit a log), EIP-7778 (block gas accounting without refunds), EIP-7843 (a SLOTNUM opcode), EIP-7954 (raising the maximum contract size from roughly 24 KiB to 32 KiB), EIP-7975 (eth/70 partial block receipt lists), EIP-8024 (backward-compatible SWAPN, DUPN and EXCHANGE opcodes), EIP-8037 (state-creation gas-cost increase), and EIP-8159 (eth/71 Block Access List Exchange).</cite>
<h2 id="gas-limit-and-timeline">Gas Limit and Timeline</h2>
Together, the two headline proposals clear a path toward a dramatically higher gas ceiling. <cite>The 200 million gas limit is the design target for what Glamsterdam unblocks, not a value the fork itself enforces. Validators set the limit via standard gas-vote signaling, which they currently coordinate around the 60 million range, and would step it up only as nodes prove they can handle the larger blocks without degraded propagation.</cite>
<cite>The final devnet is the last major engineering phase before client releases, security reviews, and public testnets.</cite><cite>Holesky and Hoodi will fork before mainnet, and only after multi-client stability holds for several epochs across those networks. Past forks have run two to four months of public-testnet seasoning, putting a mainnet window broadly between September and December 2026.</cite>
<cite>Ethereum Foundation contributors note Glamsterdam is proving trickier and slower than Fusaka, so a slip remains possible.</cite> No firm mainnet activation slot has been set. What is clear is that <a href="https://x.com/search?q=%24ETH&amp;src=cashtag_click" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">$ETH</a>'s base layer, if the upgrade lands on schedule, will be materially more capable heading into 2027.
Sources: <a href="https://thedefiant.io/news/blockchains/ethereum-glamsterdam-final-devnet-200m-gas-limit-target" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">The Defiant: Ethereum's Glamsterdam Upgrade Enters Final Devnet Phase</a> <a href="https://www.datawallet.com/crypto/ethereum-glamsterdam-upgrade-explained" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Datawallet: Ethereum Glamsterdam Upgrade and EIPs Explained</a> <a href="https://www.kiln.fi/post/glamsterdam-ethereums-next-hard-fork-explained" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Kiln: Glamsterdam, Ethereum's Next Hard Fork Explained</a>

Ethereum's biggest upgrade since the Merge is closer than most realize

Table of Contents

BSCN

Other articles published on Jul 5, 2026

Join our free newsletter for daily crypto updates!