Ethereum Glamsterdam Upgrade
Learn about the Ethereum Glamsterdam upgrade, its impact on fees, smart contracts, staking, and network activity in this practical guide.
Ethereum’s Glamsterdam Upgrade: A Practical Guide to Fees, Contracts, Staking and Market Signals
First, establish what is actually happening on Oct. 6
Ethereum’s next upgrade, Glamsterdam, is scheduled to activate on the Sepolia testnet on Oct. 6. That is a rehearsal environment used by developers and infrastructure operators, not the Ethereum mainnet where ordinary ETH transfers and production applications settle. [3]
The immediate cost is operational rather than monetary. Sepolia node operators must update both execution-layer and consensus-layer client software before activation, while developers using the testnet need to check whether their contracts depend on old gas assumptions. [3]
The risk appears in the gap between a testnet date and a live-network date. Developers have not fixed dates for Glamsterdam’s Hoodi testnet deployment or mainnet activation, meaning any claim that users will receive lower mainnet fees on Oct. 6 is premature. [3]
For users, this distinction matters because token transfers, swaps and NFT activity on Ethereum mainnet are not changing on the testnet activation day. For teams, it means the practical work begins now, but the mainnet migration window is still unknown.
Glamsterdam’s stated objective is to improve block construction, validation and data handling. Its two central changes are enshrined proposer-builder separation, known as ePBS, and block-level access lists, which are designed to make transaction processing more predictable and more parallelizable. [10]
If you are waiting for cheaper transactions, use a realistic budget
The most concrete capacity target is a rise in Ethereum’s per-block gas limit from 60 million to 200 million gas. That is a potential 3.3-fold increase in the computational work blocks can include, assuming the target is implemented as planned. [2]
Capacity is not the same thing as a guaranteed fee reduction. Ethereum transaction fees depend on demand for blockspace, transaction complexity, application design and the base-fee market, so a larger gas limit can relieve congestion without creating a fixed discount.
No credible published source in the research supplied a percentage estimate for lower average gas fees after Glamsterdam. Claims that the upgrade will cut fees by a specified amount, or push Ethereum to a specified transactions-per-second figure, should therefore be treated as speculation.
Block-level access lists are intended to identify the accounts and storage locations each block will touch. That information may allow more work to be processed in parallel instead of forcing every transaction into a wholly sequential path. [3]
For a regular Ethereum user, the practical approach is to compare the actual quote in a wallet or application immediately before submitting a transaction. Do not defer a time-sensitive payment, liquidation prevention transaction or bridge operation solely because an upgrade is expected later.
For applications with discretionary activity, record present costs by transaction type before the upgrade. Separate simple ETH transfers from swaps, minting, withdrawals and contract interactions, then compare the same operations after mainnet deployment rather than relying on headline claims.
That comparison matters because throughput gains could be uneven. A simple transfer and a multi-contract decentralized-finance transaction consume blockspace differently, and no public benchmark yet establishes how a specific application’s final user costs will change.
If you run a contract, audit gas assumptions before mainnet
Glamsterdam will reprice gas to better reflect the cost of creating and accessing data. That is economically sensible at the protocol level, but it creates a compatibility problem for contracts designed around fixed gas stipends or hardcoded gas limits. [9]
The Ethereum Foundation has warned that gas repricing may break assumptions in a small but meaningful set of deployed contracts. One analysis estimated that roughly 27,790 contracts could face changed cost or execution assumptions after the upgrade. [9]
Start with a code search for gasleft, explicit gas values in low-level calls, transfer-style payment patterns, gas-sensitive fallback functions and transaction flows that rely on a fixed reimbursement amount. Those are the places where repricing can turn a previously valid call into a failed one.
Next, trace external dependencies rather than reviewing a contract in isolation. Research cited in the upgrade brief found that 59% of Ethereum transactions involve multiple contracts, which means an incompatibility in a dependency can cascade into a user-facing failure.
Immutable contracts deserve a separate review. Research on Ethereum upgradeability found that about half of deployed contracts are controlled by a single externally owned account, while other contracts have no practical upgrade path once deployed. [1]
For upgradeable applications, prepare a controlled patch path and document the governance authority needed to use it. For immutable applications, test every critical route on Sepolia and identify whether a front end, router or wrapper can steer users away from affected calls.
This is not merely a developer concern. Users holding positions in lending, trading or staking applications should check whether the protocol has published a Glamsterdam compatibility notice before the mainnet date, especially where a transaction failure could prevent withdrawal or collateral management.
If you validate or operate infrastructure, plan for a changed block-building model
Before Glamsterdam, validators commonly outsource block construction to specialist builders through off-chain relays. That arrangement has improved efficiency but places an important part of Ethereum’s block-production workflow outside the base protocol. [11]
Glamsterdam’s ePBS proposal, EIP-7732, moves the proposer-builder interaction into Ethereum’s protocol. Validators would receive sealed bids from builders and select among them directly, replacing the current reliance on off-chain MEV-Boost-style relays. [10]
The claimed benefit is reduced reliance on a concentrated relay layer, along with potentially faster block propagation and stronger block-building resilience. Those are design goals, however, not proof that validator revenue, uptime or censorship exposure will improve by a measured amount. [10]
Infrastructure operators should confirm client compatibility for both layers, maintain a rollback plan, and rehearse their monitoring procedures on Sepolia. The testnet has a specific weakness: actors can cheaply create disposable builder identities and potentially win auctions before withholding block data. [2]
That testnet scenario does not prove a mainnet failure will occur. It does show why operators should distinguish protocol design from live operational behavior, monitor missed slots and builder performance, and avoid assuming that an on-chain PBS mechanism removes all block-production risk.
If you are staking ETH, separate yield mechanics from the supply narrative
Ethereum’s staking base has grown materially. Around 43 million ETH, roughly 35% of circulating supply, was staked by mid-September, according to Crypto Economy’s cited network data. [6]
The entry side was also more active than exits. About 2.48 million ETH was waiting to stake on Sept. 20, with the entry queue reported at 13.6 times the exit queue. [7]
Those figures can reduce the volume of ETH immediately available for sale or trading, but they do not predict the direction of the market. Staked ETH remains economically exposed to ETH’s price, while the timing and terms for withdrawing depend on the staking method used.
A prospective staker should first identify whether they are using solo validation, a pooled service, a liquid staking token or an institutional custodian. Each structure has different exposure to fees, operator performance, smart-contract risk, liquidity and counterparty control.
Solo operators should also account for the infrastructure changes described above. Glamsterdam affects the underlying block-production and validation environment, so operating a validator means maintaining compatible clients and following official release and activation notices rather than relying on price-oriented commentary.
Large holders add a second supply consideration. BitMine Immersion Technologies reported holding 6.001 million ETH, or 4.9% of the 122.1 million ETH supply it cited, as of Sept. 28. [6]
That concentration is notable, but it is not a forecast. The company’s chairman said it could reconsider holding more than 5% if Ethereum use grows, while also suggesting staking rewards could be sold to avoid its ownership share rising further. Those are corporate intentions, not binding commitments.
If you are reading ETH market activity, identify what the data does not say
ETH traded at $2,732.67 on Sept. 22, up 2.61% over 24 hours and 13.22% over 30 days, with a reported market capitalization of $333.58 billion. [5] Those are backward-looking measures, not a valuation model for the upgrade.
Exchange-held ETH reached a reported record low of 3.49% of total supply on centralized exchanges on Sept. 25. [6] This can indicate that more coins are moving into staking, self-custody or other holding structures, but it does not establish whether owners intend to sell later.
Ether exchange-traded funds also attracted capital during the period covered by Cointelegraph reporting, although daily flows cooled sharply after a stronger week. ETF flow figures deserve the same caution as exchange-supply figures because they can reflect hedging, arbitrage or portfolio rebalancing.
The broader crypto market remains sensitive to interest rates, geopolitical risk and leverage. A network upgrade does not insulate ETH from those forces, and the Altcoin Buzz video’s short-interest and price scenarios are trading commentary rather than evidence that Glamsterdam determines a near-term price level.
The next substantive checkpoint is therefore not a price target. It is evidence from Sepolia: whether clients update smoothly, whether builders and validators operate reliably under ePBS, and whether contracts with unusual gas assumptions perform as expected.
Hegotá, the upgrade expected after Glamsterdam, is tentatively associated with 2027 and may include Frame Transactions, a proposal that separates transaction authorization, fee payment and execution. Its full feature set and timetable are not settled. [10]
For now, the useful way to assess Glamsterdam is operational. Watch the mainnet schedule, measure actual fee and execution results after launch, verify contract compatibility before depending on it, and treat claimed price effects as speculation until market data can support them.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Ethereum Glamsterdam upgrade?
The Glamsterdam upgrade aims to improve Ethereum’s block construction, validation, and data handling. It introduces enshrined proposer-builder separation (ePBS) and block-level access lists to enable more predictable and parallel transaction processing, potentially increasing network capacity.
When will the Ethereum Glamsterdam upgrade launch on mainnet?
The upgrade is scheduled to activate on the Sepolia testnet on October 6, 2026, but the mainnet launch date remains unset. Developers and users should not expect mainnet changes or lower fees on this testnet date, and no confirmed mainnet activation timeline is available yet.
How will the Glamsterdam upgrade affect Ethereum gas fees?
Glamsterdam will increase the per-block gas limit from 60 million to 200 million, potentially allowing more transactions per block. However, no published benchmarks quantify average fee reductions, and actual gas fees will still depend on demand, transaction complexity, and application design, so fee decreases are not guaranteed.
What smart contract changes are needed before Glamsterdam?
Smart contracts that rely on fixed gas stipends, hardcoded gas limits, or dependent contract calls should be audited and updated before the upgrade. Gas repricing under Glamsterdam may increase execution costs or cause failures in contracts assuming old gas cost structures.
How does the Glamsterdam upgrade impact Ethereum staking and liquidity?
The upgrade itself does not directly affect staking or liquidity. However, market signals show about 43 million ETH staked as of September 2026, with declining exchange balances and rising staking queues reflecting supply and liquidity changes unrelated to the upgrade’s technical changes.
How we researched this
This article was assembled from 1 video source, 7 published articles, 13 cited references.
Nothing here is based on hands-on testing. Where a figure or finding appears, it belongs to the source cited beside it, and the writing says so rather than implying otherwise. Every source is listed below so you can check it.
Sources
1,300% Shorts On ETH Despite Vitalik’s Bullish Ethereum Updates! — Altcoin Buzz
Bitcoin ETF inflows leave institutional demand unclear: CoinShares — Cointelegraph
ECB puts AI agent payments on the digital euro drawing board — Cointelegraph
Ethereum schedules Glamsterdam upgrade on Sepolia for Oct. 6 — Cointelegraph
US crypto ETF inflows cool after $3.3B week but streaks hold — Cointelegraph
Bitcoin bounces to $84K after US 30-year bond yield sets 24-year high — Cointelegraph
Greece gets first MiCA entrants as watchdog denies Binance-Lagarde claim — Cointelegraph
BitMine could hit its 5% Ether supply target within weeks — then what? — Cointelegraph
Not so immutable: Upgradeability of Smart Contracts on Ethereum
ETH news: Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade clears rehearsal for a big jump in capacity
Ethereum Glamsterdam Upgrade Passes Dry Run, Set to Launch on Sepolia on October 6 | insigtX
Ethereum Glamsterdam Upgrade Targets 200M Gas Limit in Devnet Testing | CoinArticle
Ethereum Exchange Supply Hits Record Low as Onchain Activity Holds - Crypto Economy
Ethereum Hits $2,373 With 2.07M ETH in 36-Day Staking Queue, Exit Queue at Zero | Gate US
Ethereum Glamsterdam Upgrade Explained: What Changes for You
Watch Ethereum Network Upgrades and Activity on Youtube
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