The Ethereum blockchain network is preparing for major upgrades in 2026, with a primary focus on scalability, privacy, and decentralization. Following the successful Fusaka upgrade in December 2025, developers are finalizing plans for the Glamsterdam hard fork, expected to launch mid-year.
A cornerstone of the Glamsterdam upgrade is the introduction of Block Access Lists. This feature is designed to unlock efficient parallel transaction processing on Ethereum's execution layer, moving away from the current "single-lane" model. Block producers will include a detailed map inside each block, allowing execution clients to safely divide transactions across multiple CPU cores for simultaneous processing without conflicts. This "perfect" parallel processing is expected to significantly boost throughput without immediately requiring a gas limit increase.
Simultaneously, Ethereum's Layer-1 gas limit is set for a substantial rise. After a recent increase to 60 million, developers project a move to 100 million gas in the first half of 2026. Following the implementation of Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation (ePBS), the limit could potentially double to 200 million by year's end. Gary Schulte, a senior staff blockchain protocol engineer on the Besu client, noted that projections beyond 100 million remain speculative but are enabled by a planned shift toward delayed execution.
The upgrade also marks a fundamental shift in validator operations. Validators will begin verifying zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs instead of re-executing transactions, setting the stage for long-term scaling targets of roughly 10,000 transactions per second (TPS), a massive leap from the current ~21 TPS. Data availability will be enhanced by increasing the total number of data blobs to 72 or more, benefiting Layer-2 networks which could then handle hundreds of thousands of TPS.
Looking further into late 2026, Ethereum plans the Heze-Bogota fork, which will focus on strengthening privacy, censorship resistance, and decentralization by reducing reliance on centralized infrastructure.
Amid these technical debates, ETH's price has stabilized below the $3,000 level, hovering between $2,800 and $2,900. Market analysis suggests a bullish finish to 2025 could see ETH close above $3,000, with potential to trade between $3,200 and $3,400 in early 2026, though this outlook depends on broader crypto market recovery.
