Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade will be activated on the Hoodi testnet on October 26, 2026 at 17:42:48 UTC, at epoch 132,352 and slot 4,235,264. The Ethereum Foundation confirmed the schedule, which will raise Hoodi’s block gas limit from 60 million to 200 million, matching the configuration introduced on Sepolia on October 6.
The upgrade is a demanding test of block production, transaction validation and smart-contract execution. A 200 million gas block could theoretically accommodate about 9,523 basic ETH transfers, assuming 21,000 gas each, or roughly 794 transfers per second at Ethereum’s nominal 12-second slot interval. However, real blocks contain contract deployments, token swaps and lending operations, and larger blocks require nodes to process more execution work and access more state.
Glamsterdam includes two core protocol changes. EIP-7732 introduces enshrined proposer-builder separation, or ePBS, bringing the relationship between proposers and builders into Ethereum’s consensus rules. A proposer can commit to a builder’s execution payload before its contents are revealed, and a payload timeliness committee helps verify on-time delivery. The change separates consensus validation from execution validation, providing more time to check execution payloads.
EIP-7928 introduces block-level access lists, or BALs, which record accounts and storage locations accessed during a block along with post-transaction state changes. This allows execution clients to prepare state reads in parallel, validate independent transactions concurrently and compute state roots more efficiently. The benefit depends on transaction mix and client implementation quality.
Glamsterdam also revises gas pricing for persistent state creation and state access through EIP-8037 and EIP-8038. The Ethereum Foundation’s repricing analysis targets roughly three times previous base-layer throughput, though that is a design target rather than a measured guarantee. Historical mainnet transaction replays suggest most contracts remain unaffected, but some transactions may require higher gas limits, and a smaller group could fail if they rely on fixed gas stipends, hardcoded gas values or gasleft() logic.
Before activation, Hoodi node operators must update execution-layer and consensus-layer clients. The Foundation listed Hoodi-ready releases including Prysm v7.3.0, Teku 26.10.1, Lighthouse v8.3.0, Besu 26.10.0 and Nethermind 2.2.0, though operators should verify current compatibility. Validators must review client-specific instructions for ePBS duties, builder connections and gas-limit configuration. Smart-contract developers can use the Glamsterdam Repricing Impact Tool and the Platåberget development network for testing. ETH holders and mainnet users do not need to take action.
The Ethereum Foundation has not announced a mainnet activation date. Researcher Toni Wahrstätter said Hoodi is the final testnet before mainnet and suggested a 300-million gas limit could be a realistic next step, though that setting is not confirmed.
