Ethereum Glamsterdam upgrade targeting 10,000 TPS on Layer 1 while cutting gas fees by 78%, marking a major leap in base-layer network performance.

Ethereum Glamsterdam: 10,000 TPS and 78% Lower Gas Fees

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Key Takeaways

  • Ethereum Glamsterdam raises the gas limit from 60M to 200M (3.3x) and targets 10,000 TPS — a tenfold increase and the biggest hard fork since the Merge
  • Enshrined PBS (EIP-7732) could cut MEV extraction by up to 70%, eliminating reliance on offchain relays that currently dominate 80-90% of block production
  • Scheduled for H1 2026 (June target) with Devnet-5 testing underway, the upgrade slashes gas fees by 78.6% across all transaction types

Ten thousand transactions per second. That is the throughput target Ethereum Glamsterdam has set for its Layer 1 — a number the network has never come close to reaching. Today, Ethereum processes roughly 1,000 TPS while struggling under three compounding structural problems: excessive gas fees, centralized block production, and sluggish execution speed.

Glamsterdam is the most ambitious hard fork since the September 2022 Merge, built around two headline Ethereum Improvement Proposals: EIP-7732 (enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation) and EIP-7928 (Block-Level Access Lists). Together, they aim to cut gas fees by 78.6%, reduce MEV extraction by up to 70%, and multiply throughput tenfold — all in a single upgrade.

The Ethereum Foundation confirmed both EIPs as Glamsterdam’s official headliners in its January 2026 Checkpoint #8 report, narrowing the scope from more than 50 candidate proposals down to 17 non-headliner EIPs. What follows is a deep technical breakdown of how each component works, what it means for the network’s economics, and why the timing matters for ETH holders.

Three Structural Problems — Why Ethereum Glamsterdam Matters Now

As of March 2026, ETH trades at approximately $1,920 — down 45% from its October 2025 high above $3,600. BlackRock’s ETHA ETF holds roughly $11 billion in exposure, yet institutional capital alone has not been enough to arrest the slide. The technical limitations of Ethereum’s base layer are eroding market confidence in the network’s competitiveness.

The most glaring structural weakness is block production centralization. An estimated 80-90% of Ethereum blocks are currently assembled by offchain builders — a stark contradiction for a network that markets itself on decentralization. More than one million active validators have staked 37 million ETH (30.6% of circulating supply), but the actual process of constructing blocks remains concentrated in a handful of centralized relay operators.

This is not merely a philosophical concern. Centralized block production creates single points of failure, enables selective transaction censorship, and concentrates MEV extraction among a small group of sophisticated actors. Glamsterdam’s two headliner EIPs are designed to dismantle this architecture at the protocol level.

Ethereum Glamsterdam upgrade transforming blockchain network architecture
Glamsterdam represents the most fundamental architectural shift in Ethereum’s execution layer since the Merge — Generated by OpenAI DALL-E 3

EIP-7732: Enshrined PBS Cuts MEV Extraction by Up to 70%

Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation (ePBS) moves the block-building process from offchain relay infrastructure directly into Ethereum’s consensus layer. Under the current system, third-party relays like MEV-Boost mediate between block proposers and builders — a setup that works but introduces trust assumptions, censorship vectors, and liveness risks.

EIP-7732 replaces this with an in-protocol commit-reveal flow. Builders commit to block contents on-chain, and proposers verify and reveal those contents in a two-phase process enforced at the consensus layer — no trusted intermediary required. Researchers estimate this mechanism could reduce MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) extraction by up to 70%.

The implications extend beyond fairness. MEV represents a hidden tax on every swap, loan, and liquidity provision executed on Ethereum’s base layer. With 37 million ETH staked across more than one million validators, ePBS restructures reward distribution to reduce the asymmetric advantage that sophisticated MEV extractors currently hold over ordinary users and stakers.

There is a censorship resistance dimension as well. When block assembly moves inside the protocol, the transaction selection authority that offchain relays currently wield disappears. Builders can no longer selectively exclude transactions without violating consensus rules — a structural improvement that strengthens Ethereum’s core value proposition.

EIP-7928: Parallel Execution Unlocks 10,000 TPS

Block-Level Access Lists (BALs) attack the execution bottleneck. Today, Ethereum processes transactions within each block sequentially — one after another, regardless of whether they interact with the same state. EIP-7928 changes this by requiring block producers to declare in advance which accounts and storage slots each transaction will access.

This pre-declaration enables validators to identify non-conflicting transactions and execute them simultaneously across multiple CPU cores. The analogy is straightforward: a single-lane road becomes a multi-lane highway. Combined with the gas limit increase from 60 million to 200 million per block (a 3.3x expansion), the upgrade dramatically expands both processing parallelism and raw block capacity.

In the near term, the Ethereum Foundation projects 10-30x improvements in execution efficiency. Longer-term, parallel execution lays the groundwork for integration with ZK-EVM (zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine) clients, which target a 1,000x scaling factor. The jump from roughly 1,000 TPS to 10,000 TPS would fundamentally expand the range of activities viable on Ethereum’s base layer.

Ethereum blockchain parallel transaction processing network
Block-Level Access Lists allow validators to process non-conflicting transactions in parallel across multiple CPU cores — Photo by Art Rachen on Unsplash

78.6% Gas Fee Reduction — How the Repricing Works

Glamsterdam’s fee reduction is not a blunt instrument. It stems from a systematic repricing of the entire gas cost structure through EIP-7904 (General Repricing), which recalibrates the gas cost of each EVM opcode based on empirical client benchmarks. Rather than arbitrary discounts, the upgrade aligns gas costs with the actual computational, storage, and bandwidth resources each operation consumes.

The result is a 78.6% fee reduction spanning simple ETH transfers and complex smart contract interactions alike. For DeFi protocols, NFT marketplaces, and DAO governance votes — all of which are acutely sensitive to gas costs — this reduction materially lowers the barrier to on-chain participation. Combined with the 3.3x gas limit expansion, the effective cost per transaction drops even further.

Two companion EIPs address the other side of the equation. EIP-8037 increases the gas cost of new state creation, while EIP-8038 raises state access charges — both of which were underpriced relative to their actual resource consumption. These adjustments close denial-of-service attack vectors that exploited cheap state operations, balancing fee reduction with network security.

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Historical Hard Fork Patterns — Will Ethereum Glamsterdam Be Different?

Ethereum’s major hard forks have produced a consistent price pattern worth examining. The September 2022 Merge saw ETH rally 100% in the months leading up to activation, only to drop 15% after the fork went live — a textbook “buy the rumor, sell the news” event. Anticipation inflated the price, and the catalyst itself triggered profit-taking.

The April 2023 Shapella upgrade defied expectations. Despite fears that unlocking $34 billion in staked ETH would trigger a mass sell-off, ETH gained 10% post-activation as the feared selling pressure never materialized.

The early 2024 Dencun fork followed the pre-fork rally pattern with a 60% gain in the months preceding activation. Across all three major forks, technical improvements had direct and measurable impacts on market sentiment.

What makes the Ethereum Glamsterdam setup structurally different is the starting point. Previous pre-fork rallies largely began from elevated price levels near cycle highs, but ETH currently trades roughly 45% below its all-time high — near cycle lows, not highs. If the historical pattern of upgrade-driven appreciation holds, the catalyst arrives at a point of maximum pessimism rather than maximum euphoria.

Ethereum cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystem
Every major Ethereum hard fork has produced distinct price patterns — Glamsterdam arrives at a rare starting point near cycle lows — Photo by Traxer on Unsplash

Devnet-5 and the Road to June — Risks and Timeline

Development has reached a critical inflection point. The Ethereum Foundation has completed Devnet-4 and is transitioning to Devnet-5, with public testnet deployments and dual security audits scheduled for spring 2026. The target activation date is H1 2026, with June serving as the aspirational deadline.

The primary risk is ePBS complexity. Block-Level Access Lists have already been running on devnets, but ePBS — which modifies the consensus layer itself — has not yet reached the devnet stage, and consensus-layer changes carry inherently higher risk with a substantially larger testing surface area. A delay from June into Q3 2026 is a realistic scenario if ePBS integration encounters unexpected edge cases.

The 17 non-headliner EIPs under review add another variable. These proposals were culled from an initial pool of more than 50 candidates, but compatibility issues among the finalists could force further scope reductions. The definitive measure of Glamsterdam’s readiness will be the Devnet-5 stability results and the spring testnet dual audit outcomes.

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Beyond Glamsterdam — Hegota and the 1,000x Scaling Roadmap

Glamsterdam is one stage in a multi-phase scaling roadmap. The Hegota hard fork, scheduled for H2 2026, targets an approximately 90% reduction in node storage requirements. The goal is to lower the hardware barrier for solo stakers, broadening validator distribution and strengthening the decentralization that ePBS enables at the block production level.

ZK-EVM clients are expected to enter limited deployment in 2026 and expand significantly in 2027, enabling further gas limit increases once zero-knowledge proof verification reduces the computational cost of block validation. The progression follows a clear pattern: Fusaka delivered PeerDAS and expanded L2 data space by 2.3x, Glamsterdam targets execution efficiency and MEV reform, and Hegota will address storage overhead. Each upgrade builds the foundation for the next.

Ethereum’s ultimate ambition is a base layer capable of processing a “gigagas” per second — enough throughput to function as a high-speed financial settlement layer for the global economy. Glamsterdam’s 10,000 TPS target is the first major leap toward that vision. Two milestones will determine whether the roadmap stays on track: the June public testnet results and the ePBS devnet integration timeline.

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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice. It does not recommend buying or selling any specific security or digital asset. All investment decisions and their outcomes are the sole responsibility of the reader.