Key Takeaways
- Glamsterdam is Ethereum's next major upgrade, tentatively scheduled for June 2026, focused on making the main network faster and cheaper.
- Two headline changes — EIP-7732 and EIP-7928 — could cut gas fees by roughly 78% and push Ethereum toward 10,000 transactions per second.
- A restructured block-building process aims to make Ethereum fairer by reducing behind-the-scenes fee manipulation.
- The upgrade is still in testing, and the timeline could slip to late 2026. Price speculation is just that — speculation.
What Is the Glamsterdam Upgrade?
Ethereum doesn't stand still. Every year or so, its developers roll out a major upgrade — a coordinated set of changes baked into the network itself. The latest one is called Glamsterdam, and it's expected to arrive sometime in the first half of 2026, with June as the current target date.
The name is a mashup of "Goas" (a type of star) and "Amsterdam," the Dutch city that recently hosted a major Ethereum developer conference. Think of it like a software update for your phone — except this one applies to a decentralized financial network used by millions of people worldwide.
Glamsterdam follows two successful 2025 upgrades called Pectra and Fusaka. While those focused heavily on Ethereum's Layer 2 ecosystem (the faster, cheaper networks built on top of Ethereum), Glamsterdam turns attention back to Ethereum's core — what developers call Layer 1. The goal: make the main network faster, cheaper, and fairer.
The Two Big Changes Under the Hood
You don't need to be an engineer to understand what Glamsterdam is trying to fix. Here's a plain-English breakdown of the two most important proposals.
EIP-7732: Making Block-Building Fairer
Every time Ethereum processes a group of transactions (called a "block"), someone has to decide which transactions go in and in what order. Right now, that job is split between validators (who confirm blocks) and builders (who assemble them) — but they rely on outside middlemen called relays to coordinate. Those relays operate largely on trust, outside of Ethereum's core rules.
EIP-7732 brings this whole process inside the protocol. Builders seal their proposed blocks cryptographically, validators pick the highest bidder without seeing the contents first, and the block only gets revealed after the deal is locked in. No more trusting middlemen — the rules are enforced by the network itself.
Why does this matter to you? By mid-2025, over 50% of high-value Ethereum transactions were being routed through private channels specifically to avoid a problem called MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) — where traders or bots manipulate transaction ordering to skim profits from regular users. EIP-7732 is a direct response to that problem.
EIP-7928: Faster Transactions Through Smarter Prep Work
Right now, when Ethereum processes a block, it discovers which accounts and data it needs to look up while it's executing — like reading a recipe and shopping for ingredients at the same time. That forces the network to wait for slow disk reads before moving on.
EIP-7928 introduces Block-Level Access Lists (BALs) — essentially a shopping list prepared in advance. Nodes know ahead of time which data they'll need, so they can preload it and even process non-conflicting transactions simultaneously. The result is meaningfully faster execution at the base layer.
What Could Actually Change for Everyday Users?
The technical details matter because they translate into real-world differences for anyone who uses Ethereum — whether that's sending tokens, using a decentralized app, or holding ETH.
| What Changes | Before Glamsterdam | After Glamsterdam (projected) |
|---|---|---|
| Gas fees | Unpredictable, often high | Projected ~78% reduction |
| Transactions per second | ~1,000 TPS today | Target: 10,000 TPS |
| Gas limit per block | 60 million | Up to 200 million (phased) |
| Block-building fairness | Relies on trusted middlemen | Enforced by protocol rules |
A 78% drop in gas fees would be significant. Gas fees are what you pay to do anything on Ethereum — send a token, use a DeFi app, mint an NFT. High fees have long been one of the biggest complaints from everyday users. If the projections hold, routine transactions that once cost several dollars could cost cents.
The gas limit expansion — from 60 million to eventually 200 million units per block — is what enables the leap toward 10,000 transactions per second, roughly ten times what Ethereum handles today.
Where Does the Upgrade Stand Right Now?
As of early April 2026, Glamsterdam is still in active testing. Ethereum's developer team has already tested three of the eight proposed EIPs on a private test network called Devnet-4 and is transitioning to Devnet-5. These are essentially practice runs before anything goes live on the real network.
The tentative launch window is June 2026, but developers have been careful to frame this as a goal, not a guarantee. Ethereum's last two upgrades (Pectra and Fusaka) shipped on time, suggesting the team has gotten better at hitting deadlines — but Glamsterdam is more complex than either of those.
Bottom line: the upgrade is real and actively in development, but "June 2026" should be treated as an optimistic target, not a firm ship date.
What's the Market Doing While All This Happens?
It's worth separating the technical progress from the price action, because they don't always move together.
As of early April 2026, ETH is trading near $1,920 — down more than 45% from its October 2025 high above $3,600. The broader crypto market has been in a rough patch, with the Fear & Greed Index spending 46 consecutive days in "extreme fear" territory, the lowest reading since October 2023.
On the institutional side, Ethereum ETFs have seen mixed flows — some days bringing in $71 million, other weeks seeing $206 million walk out the door. March 2026 ended with about $46 million in net outflows overall.
Meanwhile, about 37 million ETH — roughly 30.6% of the total supply — is locked up in staking, earning holders annualized returns of around 3–5% APY. Over 3 million more ETH is waiting in the validator entry queue.
Some analysts are bullish on ETH's longer-term trajectory. Tom Lee has floated price targets of $7,000–$9,000, and Standard Chartered raised its end-2026 target to $7,500. But these are forecasts, not facts — and they come from people with their own interests and track records of being wrong.
What Are the Real Risks Here?
Glamsterdam represents genuine progress, but it's important to stay clear-eyed about what could go wrong.
- Timeline slippage: The June 2026 target could realistically slip to Q3 or Q4 if testing reveals issues or developer disagreements slow the process. Ethereum has a history of delayed upgrades.
- Untested complexity: The interplay between EIP-7732 (block-building reform) and EIP-7928 (access lists) hasn't been tested at full mainnet scale. Unexpected bugs or edge cases could surface.
- Fee projections may not hold: The 78% fee reduction estimate is a projection based on the proposed changes. Real-world results depend on how the network is actually used after the upgrade.
- Price ≠ progress: Even if Glamsterdam ships perfectly and on time, ETH's price could still go up or down based on macroeconomic factors, regulation, or market sentiment that has nothing to do with the upgrade itself.
- Scope creep: With 25+ additional EIPs under consideration, there's a real risk that disagreements about what to include delay the whole package.
The Bottom Line
Glamsterdam is the most ambitious overhaul of Ethereum's core network in years. If it delivers what developers are promising — 78% lower fees, 10x more throughput, and a fairer block-building process — it would be a meaningful step forward for the network that powers most of the DeFi, NFT, and tokenized asset activity in crypto today.
For everyday holders, the upgrade doesn't require you to do anything. You don't need to move your ETH or take any action — changes to the protocol happen automatically when the network upgrades. What you should do is stay informed and keep realistic expectations.
Ethereum has been upgrading steadily for years, and each cycle makes the network more capable. But "more capable" doesn't automatically mean "more valuable" on any particular timeline. If you hold ETH or use Ethereum-based apps, Glamsterdam is worth understanding — just don't let upgrade excitement drive financial decisions you haven't thought through carefully.