Ethereum’s next hard fork is shaping up to be the most consequential change to the network’s execution layer since the Merge. The Glamsterdam upgrade — a portmanteau of Glamis and Amsterdam, the two European Consensus Layer and Execution Layer meeting locations — targets a tripling of Layer-1 throughput capacity and introduces new execution architecture that could push transaction fees toward near-zero for most use cases.
The upgrade is currently in final specification phases, with mainnet activation targeted for H1 2026 — making it one of the most anticipated Ethereum forks in years.
The Core Changes: Gas Limits and BALs
Glamsterdam’s throughput increase rests on two interconnected upgrades.
Gas Limit Increase: The gas limit per block is set to rise from approximately 60 million gas today to around 200 million gas — a 3.3x increase in raw execution capacity. This means roughly three times as many operations can be processed per block, directly expanding the number of transactions and contract interactions Ethereum can handle each slot.
Ethereum’s gas limit has not been significantly increased in recent years, partly due to concerns about state bloat and the technical demands placed on validator hardware. Glamsterdam addresses these concerns through the second component of the upgrade.
Block-Level Access Lists (BALs): BALs are a new execution primitive that provide the EVM with advance information about which storage slots and addresses a transaction will access before execution begins. This enables parallel processing of transactions that touch non-overlapping state — a significant architectural shift from the current serial execution model.
By parallelising execution where possible, BALs allow the higher gas limit to be used efficiently rather than creating bottlenecks at the EVM level. The combination targets aggregate throughput of approximately 10,000 transactions per second for simple transfers, up from around 30 TPS under current conditions — though complex contract interactions will see smaller relative gains.
What This Means for Gas Fees
The practical impact for users is the headline that has driven significant interest in Glamsterdam: if the network’s capacity triples and demand does not immediately triple alongside it, fees will fall — potentially to near zero for standard operations.
Lido advisor Hasu, whose analysis has been widely cited across the ecosystem, estimates that if transaction demand remains at current levels after the upgrade, gas fees could decline by 60-80%. For simple ETH transfers, this could mean sub-cent costs. For more complex DeFi interactions, fees that currently range from $0.50 to several dollars could fall into the $0.05-0.20 range.
The caveat is that lower fees typically drive higher demand. The history of Ethereum Layer 2 fee reductions suggests that cheap blockspace fills up — the Dencun upgrade in 2024 dramatically reduced L2 fees, which subsequently drove a surge in L2 transaction volume. Glamsterdam may follow a similar pattern: fees fall initially, demand expands, fees stabilise at a new lower equilibrium rather than reaching near-zero on a sustained basis.
Long-Term Sustainability: Why BALs Matter Beyond Speed
The fee reduction story is the marketable headline, but BALs carry longer-term significance that some analysts consider more important.
Parallel execution lays the groundwork for future gas limit increases beyond 200 million. Without BALs, pushing the gas limit higher would eventually create execution bottlenecks as the serial EVM struggles to process larger blocks within the slot time. With BALs providing the infrastructure for parallelism, future upgrades can continue expanding capacity incrementally without requiring further architectural changes.
This positions Glamsterdam not just as a one-time capacity boost but as an enabling upgrade for Ethereum’s long-term scaling trajectory. Researchers have described it as “building the road” that future gas limit increases will travel on.
The EVM’s parallel processing capability also has implications for the execution sharding and statelessness work on Ethereum’s longer-term roadmap. Execution environments designed for parallel processing are more amenable to future distributed execution models.
Layer 2 Implications
A frequently asked question about Glamsterdam is whether it makes Layer 2 solutions less necessary. The answer from most L2 developers is no — but the relationship changes.
L2s currently derive much of their value from offering significantly cheaper execution than Ethereum L1. After Glamsterdam, the gap narrows, but L1 will not reach the sub-cent transaction costs that L2s currently offer for bulk operations. L2s will continue to serve high-volume, high-frequency use cases — applications doing millions of cheap transactions, gaming platforms, high-frequency DeFi protocols — that require economics that L1 cannot match even at 10,000 TPS.
What changes is the competitive positioning for mid-tier use cases: DeFi swaps, NFT mints, governance votes, and token transfers that currently sit on L2s primarily for cost reasons. Some of this activity may migrate back to L1 if fees drop sufficiently, increasing L1 validator revenue but potentially reducing activity on individual L2 chains.
The L2 ecosystem is watching Glamsterdam closely. Several rollup operators have begun adapting their fee models in anticipation of a changed L1 fee environment.
Timeline
Glamsterdam’s specification work is largely complete. The upgrade is currently in client implementation phases, with major client teams including Geth, Nethermind, Besu, and Erigon actively building out the required changes.
Devnet testing has begun. A testnet fork is expected in the coming weeks, with mainnet activation anticipated in H1 2026 if testing proceeds without major issues. Given the EF’s recent personnel transitions, the community has been watching whether the developer coordination process will proceed smoothly — and to date, the technical work appears to be advancing on schedule.
FAQ
How much will Ethereum gas fees drop after Glamsterdam?
Estimates vary, but if demand does not immediately fill the new capacity, fees could fall 60-80% from current levels. Simple ETH transfers could drop to sub-cent costs. However, lower fees historically attract more usage, so fees may stabilise at a new lower equilibrium rather than staying near zero.
Does Glamsterdam make Ethereum Layer 2 solutions obsolete?
No. L2s will continue to offer significantly cheaper execution for high-volume use cases. Glamsterdam narrows the gap but does not eliminate L2’s cost advantage for applications doing millions of daily transactions.
When will Glamsterdam activate on Ethereum mainnet?
Mainnet activation is targeted for H1 2026, pending successful testnet runs. No confirmed date has been set as of this writing.
Sources: ethereum.org, Phemex, BingX, Cointribune, OneKey.so
