Ethereum's Glamsterdam hard fork — tracked under Meta EIP-7773 — has entered its final devnet phase with ten Ethereum Improvement Proposals locked for inclusion. The upgrade, the network's largest protocol change since the 2022 Merge, targets mainnet activation in H2 2026 with a base-case window ...
"2026 is the year that we take back lost ground in terms of self-sovereignty and trustlessness." — Vitalik Buterin, Co-founder, Ethereum
Ethereum's Glamsterdam hard fork — tracked under Meta EIP-7773 — has entered its final devnet phase with ten Ethereum Improvement Proposals locked for inclusion. The upgrade, the network's largest protocol change since the 2022 Merge, targets mainnet activation in H2 2026 with a base-case window of September to December. Two headline proposals dominate the scope: EIP-7732 (Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation) and EIP-7928 (Block-Level Access Lists).
The combined effect clears a path to a 200-million gas-limit floor, roughly tripling current L1 capacity from the existing ~60 million baseline. Researchers estimate ePBS could reduce MEV extraction by up to 70%. Standard ETH transfers are projected to become up to 71% cheaper. Roughly 90% of Ethereum blocks are currently built via MEV-Boost middleware; Glamsterdam would make that dependency optional by enshrining the builder-proposer exchange directly into the consensus layer.
Ethereum core developers completed the Soldøgn interop devnet on May 2, 2026, which served as a multi-client stress test for the full Glamsterdam EIP bundle. The DevOps team tested three EIPs on Devnet-4 before transitioning to Devnet-5 in mid-June, where the complete ten-EIP slate is now running.
Public testnets — Holesky and Hoodi — must fork before mainnet activation. According to The Defiant, stability must hold across multiple epochs on both testnets. Given that recent Ethereum forks have required two to four months of public-testnet seasoning, a mainnet window of September to December 2026 represents the firmer base case, according to protocol analysts. Some staking providers have cited an optimistic internal target around Q3 2026, though no formal date is locked.
The original development timeline targeted H1 2026, with June as an aspirational window. After the Soldøgn interop, core developers adjusted expectations to Q3 2026 as a more realistic estimate.
As of June 17, 2026, the Glamsterdam Meta EIP-7773 lists ten proposals scheduled for inclusion:
| EIP | Name | Function | |-----|------|----------| | EIP-7708 | ETH Transfer Logs | Mandates standard log events for all non-zero ETH transfers and burns | | EIP-7732 | Enshrined PBS (ePBS) | Separates proposer and builder roles at the protocol level | | EIP-7778 | Gas Accounting Without Refunds | Removes refunds from block-level gas accounting | | EIP-7843 | SLOTNUM Opcode | Exposes current slot number to the EVM | | EIP-7928 | Block-Level Access Lists (BALs) | Enables parallel transaction processing | | EIP-7954 | (Scheduled) | Under devnet testing | | EIP-7976 | (Scheduled) | Under devnet testing | | EIP-7981 | (Scheduled) | Under devnet testing | | EIP-8024 | (Scheduled) | Under devnet testing | | EIP-8037 | State Creation Gas Costs | Harmonizes gas costs proportional to permanent state data created |
The two consensus headliners — EIP-7732 and EIP-7928 — represent the largest structural changes. The remaining EIPs address gas repricing, EVM improvements, and developer tooling.
The most consequential proposal in Glamsterdam formalizes the separation between block proposers (validators who select the consensus block) and builders (entities that assemble the execution payload). This hand-off currently relies on MEV-Boost, a third-party middleware system maintained by Flashbots and operated through a network of relays.
Under ePBS, the exchange moves directly into the protocol:
The system is permissionless: any entity meeting an ETH collateral requirement can participate as a builder. The existing MEV-Boost relay infrastructure continues to function; ePBS is strictly opt-in and does not force migration.
The decision to include EIP-7732 was finalized during All Core Developers Consensus Call #162, according to EtherWorld. The proposal was originally considered for the prior Fusaka upgrade but was deferred due to scope concerns.
Researchers estimate the protocol-level auction transparency could reduce MEV extraction by up to 70%, according to analysis cited by Phemex. Every builder bid becomes committed on-chain, making the auction process publicly verifiable for the first time.
The second headliner introduces Block-Level Access Lists (BALs), which pre-declare the accounts and smart contracts each transaction within a block will interact with. When the network identifies that two transactions touch completely different parts of the state, it can process them simultaneously rather than sequentially.
This is Ethereum's first native parallel execution capability at the block level. The mechanism does not require changes to existing smart contracts; it operates at the validator and client level.
BALs provide the intelligence layer for the gas limit increase. Without parallel processing, simply raising the gas limit would increase hardware requirements for node operators without proportional throughput gains. With BALs, the capacity can scale while maintaining decentralization properties.
The combination of ePBS and BALs clears the technical path for validators to raise the block gas limit from the current ~60 million to a target floor of 200 million — a 3.33x increase. According to Bitget analysis, the Ethereum Foundation predicted the limit would increase to 100 million in H1 2026 and double to 200 million following the ePBS deployment.
Throughput projections at 200 million gas:
The wider propagation window from ePBS also expands the data-availability budget for Layer 2 rollups, allowing more blobs per block. This has direct implications for rollup posting costs on Ethereum L1.
Further gas limit increases to 300 million per block are considered technically feasible before year-end, according to Ethereum Foundation projections cited by Bitget. However, no formal commitment exists beyond the 200 million target.
Current data from Relayscan illustrates the concentration problem ePBS aims to address. As of July 2, 2026:
Relay market share (by payload):
Builder market share (by blocks built):
A single builder — Titan — constructs more than half of all MEV-Boost blocks. The top five builders control approximately 96.7% of all MEV blocks, according to a January 2026 analysis cited by GitHub. Approximately 90% of all Ethereum blocks are built via MEV-Boost, meaning the vast majority of validators outsource block construction to specialized builders.
ePBS does not eliminate builder concentration. It enshrines a capital requirement for builders, which adds accountability but also adds friction for new entrants. Sigma Prime published a case against EIP-7732 for Glamsterdam, noting concerns about the potential for the capital requirement to entrench existing dominant builders. The counterargument, articulated by Ethereum researcher potuz on HackMD, is that protocol-level transparency reduces the trust assumptions that currently favor incumbents.
According to Figment, a staking infrastructure provider managing 1,480,352 ETH (4.1% of supply), Glamsterdam addresses two areas of particular interest to institutional stakers: block building architecture and validator exit speed.
MEV transparency: Under ePBS, every builder bid is committed on-chain. Stakers can observe in real time what blocks are worth and how builder payments flow through the system. This addresses a long-standing opacity concern in the current MEV-Boost pipeline.
Faster exits: Glamsterdam includes changes that significantly accelerate validator exit processing. According to Figment's analysis, what currently takes weeks to clear the exit queue could be processed in days post-upgrade. For institutional operators, this reduces the time-to-liquidity cost — one of the more operationally consequential risks in large staked ETH positions.
No forced migration: The existing MEV-Boost and relay setup continues to function exactly as it does today. The new ePBS builder market is strictly opt-in, which reduces upgrade risk for validators that prefer to maintain their current configuration.
Glamsterdam lands in an environment of historically low Ethereum L1 fees. As of mid-2026:
According to SQ Magazine, average gas fees have dropped to $3.78 per transaction due to Layer 2 scaling. Temporary congestion spikes still occur during major NFT drops or DeFi events, but baseline fees have declined substantially from historical peaks.
The fee reduction from Glamsterdam's gas limit increase may have a more pronounced effect during congestion events than during normal conditions, given that baseline fees are already near-zero. The economic significance lies in raising the ceiling, not lowering the floor.
Glamsterdam represents Ethereum's most ambitious protocol change since the Merge. The scope — enshrined PBS, parallel execution, gas repricing, and a 3.33x capacity target — addresses structural concerns that have accumulated since proposer-builder separation was first externalized through MEV-Boost in 2022.
The upgrade does not eliminate builder concentration; Titan's 54% block share will not shrink simply because the auction moves on-chain. What changes is transparency: bids, payments, and builder behavior become protocol-verifiable rather than relay-mediated. Whether that transparency advantage compounds over time or merely formalizes the status quo depends on builder market dynamics that remain uncertain.
The mainnet timeline carries standard execution risk. Ethereum's track record on upgrade delays — Glamsterdam was originally targeted for H1 2026 before slipping — suggests the December end of the window is as plausible as the September beginning. No formal activation date exists.
What is clear: Ethereum's base layer is being re-engineered for higher throughput at the protocol level, reversing a multi-year strategy that pushed scaling almost entirely to Layer 2s. Whether L1 scaling recaptures economic activity from rollups or simply provides cheaper data availability for them will be the defining question of Ethereum's second half of 2026.