Ethereum's next hard fork, Glamsterdam, entered its final devnet phase in June 2026 with ten EIPs scheduled for inclusion under meta-specification EIP-7773. The upgrade's two headline proposals — EIP-7732 (enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation) and EIP-7928 (Block-Level Access Lists) — restructur...
"Lean Ethereum should not be treated as a single hard fork or one-time technical release. Instead, it is a series of protocol changes that will arrive gradually across future Ethereum upgrades." — Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum Co-Founder
Ethereum's next hard fork, Glamsterdam, entered its final devnet phase in June 2026 with ten EIPs scheduled for inclusion under meta-specification EIP-7773. The upgrade's two headline proposals — EIP-7732 (enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation) and EIP-7928 (Block-Level Access Lists) — restructure how blocks are built and executed on the network. Sepolia testnet activation is tentatively set for August 3, with mainnet deployment targeted around September-December 2026, though the Ethereum Foundation has acknowledged the timeline may slip.
The fork is the first major step in what Buterin described on July 6, 2026, as Ethereum's "third major iteration," comparable in scale to the 2022 Merge. By moving block-building auctions on-chain and enabling parallel transaction execution, Glamsterdam lays the technical groundwork for raising the L1 gas limit from the current 60 million toward a design target of 200 million — a path that, if fully realized, would reduce L1 gas costs by up to 78% and push base-layer throughput toward 10,000 TPS from the current 15-20 TPS.
The stakes are material. Ethereum's DeFi TVL stands at approximately $45.4 billion as of mid-July 2026, with the network's share of total DeFi TVL having fallen to 54% from roughly 65% a year ago. Solana's DEX volume exceeded Ethereum's combined L1 and L2 volume in multiple sessions during Q1 2026. Glamsterdam is, in functional terms, an attempt to close the throughput and cost gap that has eroded Ethereum's competitive position at the execution layer.
Glamsterdam follows Pectra and Fusaka, both of which shipped on schedule in 2025. It constitutes the most significant structural change to Ethereum's block production pipeline since the Merge replaced proof-of-work consensus with proof-of-stake in September 2022.
The upgrade operates on two axes simultaneously. On the consensus side, EIP-7732 embeds proposer-builder separation directly into the protocol, removing the dependency on third-party relay infrastructure that currently mediates over 90% of Ethereum block construction. On the execution side, EIP-7928 introduces block-level access lists that declare which accounts and storage slots a block will touch before execution begins, enabling nodes to distribute non-conflicting transactions across multiple CPU cores in parallel.
Together, these changes convert Ethereum's block processing from a single-threaded sequential model to a multi-lane parallel architecture. The Ethereum Foundation has described the combined effect as moving from "a single-lane road to a multi-lane highway."
EIP-7773, the Glamsterdam meta-specification, lists ten proposals as Scheduled for Inclusion as of June 17, 2026:
| EIP | Description | Layer | |------|------------|-------| | EIP-7708 | ETH transfers emit a log | Execution | | EIP-7732 | Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation (ePBS) | Consensus | | EIP-7778 | Block Gas Accounting without Refunds | Execution | | EIP-7843 | SLOTNUM opcode | Execution | | EIP-7928 | Block-Level Access Lists (BALs) | Execution | | EIP-7954 | Increase Maximum Contract Size | Execution | | EIP-7976 | Increase Calldata Floor Cost | Execution | | EIP-7981 | Increase Access List Cost | Execution | | EIP-8024 | Backward-compatible SWAPN, DUPN, EXCHANGE | Execution | | EIP-8037 | State Creation Gas Cost Increase | Execution |
EIP-7773 remains in Draft status. The ACDC-178 developer call from May 2026 confirmed EIP-7732 as the centerpiece, with additional smaller EIPs subject to client team readiness.
The current state of Ethereum block production operates through MEV-Boost, a middleware system introduced after the Merge. Under this system, validators outsource block construction to specialized builders who compete to assemble the most profitable blocks, with relay operators serving as trusted intermediaries.
The centralization metrics are stark. According to relay data tracked by multiple analytics dashboards, only eight active relays operate on Ethereum as of mid-2026. The five largest relays control over 90% of market share. Over 90% of all Ethereum blocks are outsourced to builders through this relay-mediated auction process. The relays themselves are off-protocol infrastructure — unvetted, trust-dependent, and representing single points of failure that can affect network liveness.
EIP-7732 moves the entire builder auction on-chain. Under ePBS, the protocol itself handles the bidding, block-content delivery, and payment processing that currently depend on relay middleware. Builders submit bids to proposers through protocol-native mechanisms. The block is split into a consensus component (proposed by the validator) and an execution payload (supplied by the builder), with the payment enforced at the protocol level.
A June 2026 paper published on arXiv ("SoK: Current State of Ethereum's Enshrined Proposer Builder Separation") analyzed the trade-offs. The researchers noted that while ePBS addresses censorship resistance, validator reward equity, and relay centralization, it potentially introduces new risks around multiparty collusion and chain stagnation — scenarios where builders and proposers could coordinate to extract value or where missing execution payloads could stall block finalization.
EIP-7928 requires each block to include a pre-declared list of accounts and storage slots it will access. This access list functions as a dependency map: nodes can identify which transactions within a block are independent of each other and execute them concurrently across multiple CPU cores.
Currently, Ethereum processes transactions sequentially within each block. A node must execute transaction N before it can begin transaction N+1, because any transaction might read or modify state that the next transaction depends on. This sequential constraint is the fundamental bottleneck limiting L1 throughput.
With BALs, a node receiving a new block can immediately identify non-conflicting transactions — those touching entirely different accounts and storage — and farm them out to parallel threads. The effect is analogous to moving from a single-core processor to a multi-core architecture at the block validation level.
The practical throughput gain depends on how many transactions within a typical block are genuinely independent. DeFi transactions that interact with the same liquidity pools will still serialize. Simple transfers between unrelated accounts will parallelize fully. Ethereum Foundation developers have projected aggregate throughput approaching 10,000 TPS under favorable transaction mix conditions, though real-world performance will vary with block composition.
The gas limit on Ethereum is not set by hard fork. Validators adjust it through a consensus signaling mechanism — each validator votes to raise, lower, or maintain the current limit, and the network converges on a value. The community raised the limit from 30 million to 60 million during 2025, and Fusaka's EIP-7935 standardized 60 million as the new default.
Glamsterdam does not directly set the gas limit to 200 million. What it does is make it safe to raise the limit to that level by solving the verification bottleneck. Without parallel execution, a 200-million-gas block would take too long for nodes to process before the next slot, threatening network stability. With BALs enabling concurrent validation, the processing time for larger blocks shrinks proportionally to the degree of parallelization achieved.
The full realization of 200 million gas also depends on a longer-term transition: validators moving from re-executing every transaction to verifying ZK execution proofs. Under this model, a block producer generates a zero-knowledge proof that the block was executed correctly, and validators verify the proof rather than replaying all transactions. The hardware requirements for proof generation are significant — estimated at $100,000 or more for proof-generation clusters — raising centralization concerns that the network has not yet resolved.
According to Ethereum Foundation contributors, the gas limit is expected to rise in stages rather than a single jump. Post-Glamsterdam, validators would likely signal incremental increases as they observe network stability under parallel execution conditions.
Glamsterdam raises the floor for validator hardware. Current recommended specifications for an Ethereum validator include 8-12 CPU cores, 64-128 GB RAM, 4 TB enterprise NVMe storage, and 100 Mbps bandwidth. At a 200-million-gas limit with parallel execution, these requirements would increase further, particularly for CPU core count and storage I/O throughput.
According to an analysis published by CryptoSlate in July 2026, a key risk lies in the ZK proof generation hardware requirements downstream of Glamsterdam. If proof generation becomes dominated by a small number of entities that can afford the specialized GPU or ASIC clusters required, the security model that relies on distributed validation could weaken.
The Ethereum community is exploring Distributed Validator Technology (DVT) as a mitigation. DVT splits validator keys across multiple operators, reducing single points of failure and lowering the capital barrier for individual participants. However, DVT is not part of Glamsterdam itself and remains a parallel development track.
According to an analysis by Figment, a major institutional staking provider, ePBS addresses a specific barrier for regulated entities. Currently, institutional validators capture MEV by routing block-building through third-party relays that they cannot fully audit or vet for compliance. This creates what Figment describes as an "off-protocol dependency" that compliance-bound organizations struggle to document and justify.
By moving the builder auction on-chain, ePBS converts this dependency into a protocol-level guarantee. For institutional staking desks, the distinction between a documented protocol mechanism and an external middleware dependency is material for risk management and regulatory reporting.
Figment also noted that Glamsterdam's changes to exit queue processing could reduce the time required to process large, concentrated exit requests — the kind institutional operators are more likely to encounter — from weeks to days.
One-third of all ETH has reached staking as of mid-2026. Ethereum staking ETFs have launched with yield-bearing features, creating a new competitive dynamic. The fee compression observed across staking ETF providers suggests the market is pricing in expanded institutional participation post-Glamsterdam.
The development timeline as of July 2026:
Ethereum Foundation contributors have acknowledged that Glamsterdam is "proving trickier and slower than Fusaka." The meta-specification EIP-7773 remains in Draft, not Final. Historical precedent — the two to four months of public-testnet seasoning that recent forks required — suggests a September-December 2026 mainnet window as the realistic base case, with slippage possible.
The risk of delay is compounded by the upgrade's scope. Glamsterdam touches both the consensus and execution layers simultaneously, requiring coordination across multiple client implementations (Geth, Nethermind, Besu, Erigon on execution; Prysm, Lighthouse, Teku, Nimbus, Lodestar on consensus). Any client failing to achieve interoperability in testing extends the timeline for all.
Glamsterdam represents Ethereum's largest structural change since the Merge. The upgrade addresses two concrete bottlenecks: the centralization of block construction through off-protocol relay infrastructure, and the sequential execution model that caps L1 throughput at 15-20 TPS.
The economic case is straightforward. Ethereum has lost DeFi market share — from 65% to 54% over the past year — and its L1 fees remain 200-400x higher than competitors like Solana. Glamsterdam's parallel execution and gas limit expansion are necessary conditions, though not sufficient ones, for reversing that trend.
The execution risk is real. A ten-EIP hard fork touching both consensus and execution layers across nine client implementations has more failure surfaces than its predecessors. The Ethereum Foundation's own characterization of the upgrade as "trickier and slower than Fusaka" warrants attention.
If Glamsterdam ships on schedule and the gas limit subsequently rises to 200 million, Ethereum's L1 will operate in a fundamentally different performance envelope. Whether that is enough to recapture application-layer share from faster, cheaper L1 alternatives depends on factors beyond throughput — developer tooling, user experience, and the network effects of existing DeFi liquidity among them.
The data will determine the outcome. The devnets are running. The timeline is set. What remains is execution.