Ethereum’s Glamsterdam Upgrade Targets a Major Jump in Mainnet Capacity

Ethereum is preparing one of its most consequential base-layer upgrades in years, and the objective is increasingly clear: make the main network capable of processing substantially more activity without abandoning the decentralization and hardware constraints that have historically limited how aggressively Ethereum can scale.

The upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade, currently planned for the second half of 2026, is centered on two major protocol changes: enshrined proposer-builder separation, known as ePBS, and Block-Level Access Lists, or BALs. Together, they are designed to restructure how Ethereum builds, propagates and executes blocks.

The Ethereum Foundation said in May that engineering progress around these changes had established a credible 200 million gas-limit floor as a post-Glamsterdam target, supported by ePBS, BAL optimizations and gas repricing work. That does not mean Ethereum will automatically switch to a 200 million gas limit when Glamsterdam activates. It means protocol developers increasingly believe the network architecture can support a much larger execution envelope after the upgrade.

Ethereum.org currently describes the network’s gas limit at roughly 60 million and says Glamsterdam is intended to create a path toward substantially higher capacity.

For investors and institutions following Ethereum, that distinction matters. Glamsterdam is not simply another feature bundle. It represents a renewed effort to scale Ethereum Layer 1 itself after years in which much of the ecosystem’s scaling strategy focused on rollups and Layer 2 networks.

What Glamsterdam Is Trying to Change

Ethereum’s capacity is constrained by more than the nominal gas limit.

Every block has to be built, transmitted across a globally distributed network, executed, verified and accepted quickly enough to preserve consensus. Raising capacity too aggressively can increase bandwidth, computation and storage demands for validators and node operators.

If those requirements become too expensive, fewer people can independently operate Ethereum infrastructure, potentially weakening decentralization.

Glamsterdam attacks that problem by changing the architecture around block creation and execution rather than simply increasing a number.

Ethereum.org identifies three central goals for the upgrade:

• prepare the network for more parallel transaction processing
• expand the amount of data and computation Ethereum can safely handle
• control long-term database growth so higher throughput does not make node operation progressively unsustainable

That combination is what makes Glamsterdam more important than a conventional gas-limit increase.

Ethereum is attempting to increase capacity while redesigning the machinery that determines how much capacity the network can safely absorb.

ePBS Gives Ethereum More Time to Move Bigger Blocks

One of Glamsterdam’s two headline proposals is EIP-7732, which introduces enshrined proposer-builder separation.

Ethereum block production today already includes specialization between validators proposing blocks and sophisticated builders assembling them. Much of that relationship, however, exists through external infrastructure rather than being fully embedded into Ethereum’s protocol.

ePBS brings that separation into the protocol itself.

Under the proposed architecture, builders handle the resource-intensive job of constructing execution payloads, while proposers continue to perform the consensus role of selecting and proposing blocks.

The change has several potential benefits, including reducing reliance on trusted third-party relays and creating protocol-level mechanisms for builder payments.

For scaling, the most important benefit is time.

Ethereum.org says the architecture can expand the effective propagation window for execution payloads from roughly two seconds to about nine seconds.

That additional window gives the network more time to distribute and verify larger payloads.

The significance is straightforward: if Ethereum wants substantially larger blocks, it needs to make sure those blocks can move across the network without slower participants falling behind.

ePBS changes the timing and division of labor so Ethereum can potentially increase throughput without simply demanding faster hardware from every validator.

Block-Level Access Lists Attack the Sequential Execution Bottleneck

The second Glamsterdam headliner, EIP-7928, introduces Block-Level Access Lists.

Ethereum transactions currently interact with accounts, contracts and storage in ways that nodes discover as execution progresses. That makes parts of block processing inherently sequential because the network cannot always know in advance which transactions depend on the same state.

BALs would give nodes an upfront map of the state a block will access and the results of those accesses.

That seemingly technical change could be foundational for Ethereum’s scaling strategy.

With dependencies known ahead of time, clients can prepare required data earlier and potentially execute independent portions of a block in parallel instead of treating the entire workload as a single sequential queue.

Ethereum.org also highlights another potential advantage: executionless sync.

Rather than replaying every transaction to reconstruct state changes, nodes could use the block-level information to update records more efficiently.

For a network trying to scale toward dramatically higher gas limits, reducing redundant work is critical. Higher theoretical capacity is of limited value if validation becomes so computationally expensive that ordinary nodes cannot keep pace.

BALs are intended to make execution and state access more predictable before Ethereum pushes capacity much further.

Why the 200 Million Gas Target Matters

The Ethereum Foundation’s May protocol update provided one of the clearest indications yet of how ambitious the scaling effort has become.

Following multi-client testing, developers said a 200 million gas-limit floor had emerged as a credible post-Glamsterdam target.

That figure is notable because Ethereum.org currently references a roughly 60 million gas limit.

Moving from around 60 million toward 200 million would represent more than a threefold expansion in the amount of gas that can theoretically fit into a block.

Gas is not identical to transactions per second. Different transactions consume dramatically different amounts of gas, and real-world throughput depends on the mix of transfers, smart-contract calls, swaps, token operations and other activity.

Still, the gas limit is one of Ethereum’s core capacity constraints.

More gas per block generally means more execution can occur directly on Layer 1.

The Foundation’s 2026 protocol priorities have separately stated that Ethereum intends to continue raising the gas limit toward and beyond 100 million while using BALs, client benchmarking and other engineering work to keep the network sustainable.

The 200 million figure therefore should be viewed as an engineering target made possible by the Glamsterdam architecture, not as a guaranteed Mainnet setting on day one.

That is a more important story than a single hard-fork number.

Ethereum developers are attempting to change the conditions that determine how high the gas limit can safely go.

Ethereum Is Scaling Layer 1 Again

For several years, Ethereum’s scaling narrative centered heavily on Layer 2 rollups.

That strategy remains central. Rollups execute activity away from the base layer and use Ethereum for settlement and data availability, allowing the broader ecosystem to process far more transactions than Ethereum Mainnet could handle alone.

But Ethereum’s 2026 roadmap makes clear that Layer 1 capacity is again a major priority.

The Ethereum Foundation reorganized its protocol work this year around a unified Scale track combining L1 execution scaling and blob scaling.

Its stated priorities include continued gas-limit increases, ePBS, BALs, repricing and additional blob capacity.

This is not necessarily a reversal of the rollup roadmap.

A stronger Layer 1 can increase the foundation on which Layer 2 systems operate. More efficient block propagation can support additional blob throughput. Higher execution capacity can make settlement, bridging, DeFi and other L1-dependent operations less constrained.

The emerging strategy is therefore less about choosing between L1 and L2 and more about scaling both layers together.

Lower Fees Are Possible, but Not Guaranteed

More Ethereum capacity creates a reasonable expectation of lower congestion pressure, but Glamsterdam should not be presented as a promise of permanently cheap transactions.

Ethereum fees are market-driven.

If additional block capacity grows faster than demand, users may experience lower fees. If application usage, stablecoin settlement, tokenization, DeFi or other activity expands rapidly enough to consume the new capacity, fee pressure can return.

Glamsterdam also includes other proposals being considered that could affect transaction economics.

Ethereum.org highlights EIP-2780, which proposes reducing the intrinsic gas charged for basic transactions. The site says a standard native ETH transfer between existing accounts could become up to 71% cheaper under that proposal.

However, Glamsterdam’s broader importance is not one specific fee reduction.

The upgrade is designed to make future capacity increases safer and more sustainable, potentially giving Ethereum greater room to respond as demand grows.

A Scaling Upgrade Also Creates New Complexity

The scale of the architectural changes creates risk.

ePBS modifies a critical part of Ethereum’s block-production pipeline. BALs change how execution clients reason about state access. Gas repricing alters economic assumptions for applications and storage.

Those changes require extensive multi-client testing.

The Ethereum Foundation reported in May that a multi-client Glamsterdam devnet was running with the external builder pipeline tested end-to-end across nearly all clients. By June, independent reporting from CoinDesk described the upgrade as entering its final development stage, with teams testing the fork in a controlled environment.

That progress is meaningful, but Mainnet activation still depends on successful testing and coordination across Ethereum’s execution and consensus clients.

The exact upgrade scope can also change. Ethereum.org explicitly notes that several additional EIPs remain under consideration and testing.

For node operators and validators, Glamsterdam will require compatible client software before activation.

For ordinary ETH holders, no token conversion or migration is required.

Why This Matters for Ethereum’s Competitive Position

Ethereum’s central challenge is no longer simply proving that blockchains can support programmable finance.

It is demonstrating that a decentralized base layer can support institutional-scale activity without forcing most users and applications away from the network because of cost or capacity constraints.

Ethereum recorded more than 200 million base-layer transactions in the first quarter of 2026, according to CoinDesk, highlighting renewed demand for Mainnet blockspace even as Layer 2 networks continue to expand.

At the same time, stablecoins, tokenized financial assets, institutional settlement and DeFi are placing increasingly different demands on blockchain infrastructure.

A network intended to serve as a settlement layer for global financial activity needs both high capacity and strong verification guarantees.

Glamsterdam is an attempt to improve the first without weakening the second.

That is why ePBS and BALs matter more than their names suggest.

One gives Ethereum more time and a cleaner protocol structure for moving larger execution payloads. The other gives nodes better information about the work contained inside those payloads.

Together, they could allow Ethereum to substantially expand Layer 1 capacity while keeping node operation within reasonable hardware limits.

What Comes Next

Ethereum.org currently places Glamsterdam in the second half of 2026, although protocol-development timelines remain subject to testing and coordination.

The most important milestones to watch are continued multi-client interoperability testing, finalization of the upgrade’s EIP set, public testnet deployments, client releases and the eventual Mainnet activation schedule.

The 200 million gas target is also worth watching carefully.

If client testing continues to support that level of capacity, Ethereum could emerge from Glamsterdam with a much wider execution envelope than it has today.

If testing exposes bottlenecks, developers can move more gradually.

That ability to raise capacity based on measured client performance rather than ambition alone will be a key test of Ethereum’s scaling strategy.

The Bottom Line

Glamsterdam is shaping up as a structural Layer 1 scaling upgrade rather than a routine protocol release.

Its two headline changes, ePBS and Block-Level Access Lists, are designed to remove bottlenecks that limit how much computation and data Ethereum can safely process.

The Ethereum Foundation’s identification of a credible post-Glamsterdam path toward a 200 million gas limit illustrates the potential magnitude of the change. But that figure remains a target, not a guaranteed Mainnet configuration.

The more durable takeaway is that Ethereum is redesigning block production and execution so the base layer can continue scaling without making independent participation prohibitively expensive.

If Glamsterdam delivers on that architecture, Ethereum’s next major capacity expansion will not come from simply making blocks bigger.

It will come from making the network better able to handle bigger blocks in the first place.