Ethereum's Glamsterdam hard fork — the network's largest protocol overhaul since the Merge — entered its final devnet phase on June 16, 2026, locking in ten Ethereum Improvement Proposals under meta-EIP 7773. The upgrade, originally targeted for H1 2026, has slipped to Q3 2026 and is expected to ...
"The resulting gas limit increase will be phased, reaching 100 million per block initially and 200 million once ePBS is fully operational." — Tomasz Stańczak, Former Ethereum Foundation Co-Executive Director
Ethereum's Glamsterdam hard fork — the network's largest protocol overhaul since the Merge — entered its final devnet phase on June 16, 2026, locking in ten Ethereum Improvement Proposals under meta-EIP 7773. The upgrade, originally targeted for H1 2026, has slipped to Q3 2026 and is expected to reach mainnet between September and December, pending two to four months of public testnet validation.
Two headline proposals define the fork: EIP-7732, which enshrines Proposer-Builder Separation (ePBS) directly into the consensus layer, and EIP-7928, which introduces Block-Level Access Lists (BALs) enabling parallel transaction execution. Together, they clear the path for Ethereum's gas limit to rise from 60 million to 200 million per block — roughly tripling L1 capacity and targeting approximately 10,000 TPS, up from the current effective throughput of roughly 1,000 TPS.
The economic implications are significant. Gas repricing under EIP-2780 would reduce a standard ETH transfer from 21,000 gas to 6,000 — a 71% cost reduction. Researchers estimate ePBS could cut MEV extraction by up to 70%. However, a January 2026 academic paper warns that while ePBS reduces validator-side concentration, it "significantly amplifies profit and content centralisation" among builders due to persistent private order-flow advantages.
Glamsterdam — named by combining "Amsterdam" (execution layer) and "Gloas" (consensus layer, after a star) — is the third hard fork within a year, following Pectra (May 2025) and Fusaka (December 2025). According to Parithosh Jayanthi, a core developer at the Ethereum Foundation, it is "probably the largest fork we've had since the Merge."
The fork addresses two structural constraints that have limited Ethereum's base-layer capacity: sequential transaction processing and off-chain block construction. Approximately 88% of Ethereum blocks are currently built off-chain through MEV-Boost relays, with the top three builders controlling more than 80% of all PBS blocks. Glamsterdam moves this process on-chain.
Development has progressed through devnet-5 (targeted around June 4, 2026) and devnet-6 (mid-June), with all planned EIPs now bundled into multi-client devnets. As Jayanthi noted in mid-June: "We're working on devnets with all the EIPs in them right now. This is the last phase before we work on hardening and then shipping the testnets."
EIP-7773 lists ten proposals as Scheduled for Inclusion:
Consensus Headliner — EIP-7732: Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation (ePBS) Moves the entire builder market into the protocol. Under ePBS, the proposer commits to a block header while a separate builder constructs the execution payload, with cryptographic commitments replacing trusted relay infrastructure. The data propagation window extends from 2 seconds to approximately 9 seconds. A new validator attestation duty — the Payload Timeliness Committee (PTC) — is introduced to verify block availability.
Execution Headliner — EIP-7928: Block-Level Access Lists (BALs) Each block includes a record mapping every account and storage slot touched, along with post-execution state values. This map enables parallel disk reads and parallel transaction validation, because nodes can identify non-overlapping transactions before execution begins. BALs also enable "executionless sync," where nodes can verify state transitions without re-executing every transaction.
Supporting EIPs:
The gas limit expansion is not enforced by the fork itself. Validators set the limit via standard gas-vote signaling, currently coordinated around the 60 million range. The phased approach, according to Tomasz Stańczak, begins at 100 million and reaches 200 million once ePBS is fully operational.
The finalization of EIP-8037 in May 2026 was the final prerequisite. By dedicating a separate gas reservoir for state growth and capping annual state expansion at 120 GiB, client teams gained confidence that a 200M gas limit would not produce unsustainable database bloat.
Fee impact at current demand levels:
Important caveat: These are design targets, not post-activation certainties. Actual gas fees depend on user demand, L2 usage patterns, and network congestion. A tripling of capacity does not guarantee permanently lower fees if usage grows proportionally.
MEV extraction on Ethereum remains a multi-billion-dollar market. By mid-2025, over 50% of high-value Ethereum transactions were routed through private channels to avoid MEV extraction. The "free option problem" — where builders can delay block publication to exploit price movements — affects roughly 0.82% of blocks on average, rising to approximately 6% during volatile periods.
ePBS targets several structural problems:
However, Vitalik Buterin has acknowledged that ePBS alone is insufficient. The post-Glamsterdam roadmap includes FOCIL (fork-choice enforced inclusion lists) and encrypted mempools as subsequent steps to address residual centralization.
The January 2026 academic paper modeling ePBS in the presence of MEV presents a sobering finding: while validator-side concentration decreases, builder-side concentration intensifies. Access to private order flow confers a structural bidding edge that compounds over time. The top three builders' 80%+ market share may persist or even increase under ePBS, unless additional countermeasures are deployed.
Ethereum's validator set currently comprises approximately 897,000 active validators, with 38.9 million ETH staked (31.98% of total supply). Native staking APR has compressed to 2.78%, with MEV rewards adding an additional 0.5–1% to validator returns.
Staking protocol positioning:
Exit queue improvements: Glamsterdam is expected to materially accelerate validator exit processing. According to Figment's analysis, what currently takes weeks to clear the exit queue could be processed in days post-Glamsterdam. For institutional operators, faster exit processing reduces time-to-liquidity risk — one of the most operationally consequential variables in staking portfolio management.
MEV-Boost economics shift: MEV-Boost currently adds 10–30% to validator base rewards. The transition to ePBS redistributes this value flow. While aggregate MEV extraction may decrease by up to 70%, the remaining value accrues more transparently through the protocol rather than through off-chain relay infrastructure.
Layer 2 networks now account for approximately 95% of Ethereum's total transaction throughput, with assets on Ethereum rollups surpassing $37 billion. This structural shift has compressed L1 fee revenue, raising questions about ETH's long-term value accrual.
Glamsterdam introduces a tension. If it delivers a 78% gas fee reduction and 70% MEV cut, some activity currently on rollups could migrate back to L1, which carries a higher security guarantee. Chains like Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base captured users partly because L1 gas was expensive and MEV punished retail traders. Remove both frictions, and the L1/L2 calculus shifts.
The counter-argument: L2s have built application ecosystems and user bases that are sticky. Base alone processed more transactions in Q1 2026 than Ethereum L1. A cheaper L1 may attract settlement and high-value transactions back, but retail activity is unlikely to migrate at scale.
Revenue implications for ETH supply:
Current status (as of June 26, 2026):
Projected timeline:
Risk factors:
Glamsterdam represents Ethereum's most ambitious base-layer restructuring since the Merge. The combination of ePBS, parallel execution via BALs, and gas repricing addresses three persistent criticisms — high fees, MEV extraction, and limited throughput — in a single fork. The economic stakes are considerable: 897,000 validators, $37 billion in rollup assets, and $8.72 billion in Lido-staked ETH alone are directly affected by the upgrade's fee and MEV mechanics.
The data suggests Glamsterdam is technically ready for testnet progression. Whether it delivers on its throughput and fee-reduction targets depends on validator coordination around the gas limit, builder market response to ePBS, and L2 competitive dynamics. The fork does not solve Ethereum's revenue problem — L2s will continue to capture the majority of transaction volume — but it restructures the economic relationship between the base layer and its rollup ecosystem. The next six months will determine whether the restructuring strengthens or weakens ETH's value proposition as the settlement layer for the broader Ethereum economy.