Ethereum Postpones Glamsterdam Upgrade on Hoodi Testnet, No New Date Set

Ethereum's planned Glamsterdam upgrade on the Hoodi testnet, scheduled for October 26, 2026 at 17:42:48 UTC (epoch 132,352), has been called off. In a post published October 22, the Ethereum Foundation said core developers decided at All Core Devs Execution call #248 (ACDE #248) to delay the activation "to allow for further investigation of interactions of EIP-8037 with mainnet smart contracts." No replacement epoch or timestamp has been set.

The postponement strips three things from Hoodi's configuration: the Amsterdam execution-layer activation, the Gloas consensus-layer activation, and a gas-limit schedule that would have raised Hoodi's gas limit to 200 million at the same epoch. The Foundation was explicit that this is a configuration rollback for a future upgrade — it does not revert Hoodi's existing chain history.

The guidance to operators is unusually pointed. The Foundation warned that the client release tables in the earlier Hoodi announcement should not be read as confirmation that those versions include the postponement, and told node and validator operators to follow their client teams' release notes and update both execution- and consensus-layer clients before October 26 so no software still fires Glamsterdam at the old time. Application developers were told not to plan Hoodi testing around an October 26 activation.

One line is there to pre-empt panic: the announcement "concerns Hoodi," does not set a Glamsterdam mainnet date, and requires no action from mainnet users or ETH holders.

Key facts

• Glamsterdam on Hoodi, previously set for Oct 26, 2026, 17:42:48 UTC (epoch 132,352), is postponed with no new date. (Ethereum Foundation blog, Oct 22, 2026)
• Decision made at ACDE #248; reason cited is EIP-8037's interactions with mainnet smart contracts. (Ethereum Foundation)
• Removed from config: Amsterdam EL activation, Gloas CL activation, and the gas-limit step to 200M. (Ethereum Foundation)
• Hoodi chain history is not reverted; only forward configuration is rolled back. (Ethereum Foundation)
• No change to any Glamsterdam mainnet date; no action required of ETH holders. (Ethereum Foundation)

The real-world read

This is a testnet delay, not a mainnet event, and the Foundation says so twice — a sign it expects the headline to be misread as trouble for ETH itself. It isn't.

What's worth noting is the stated cause: the hold is specifically about EIP-8037's "interactions with mainnet smart contracts." Testnets exist to surface exactly this kind of problem before it reaches production, so catching it at Hoodi is the process working, not failing. Still, the open-ended "a new activation date has not been set" is the honest tell — developers don't yet know the fix, or the timeline. The repeated caution not to trust the old release tables suggests some published client versions may already carry the now-cancelled schedule, which is a coordination headache for operators even if it's invisible to users.

This post is informational and not financial advice.

Sources

• Ethereum Foundation Blog, "Glamsterdam on Hoodi Postponed" (Oct 22, 2026) — primary announcement; source for the cancelled schedule, the ACDE #248 decision, the EIP-8037 rationale, the removed activations and gas-limit step, and all operator guidance. Not marketing; a protocol-maintainer notice.