Ethereum's Glamsterdam Upgrade Gets a Hoodi Testnet Date — but Still No Mainnet

The Ethereum Foundation said on October 16 that its Glamsterdam network upgrade is scheduled to activate on the Hoodi testnet at epoch 132,352, slot 4,235,264 — October 26, 2026 at 17:42:48 UTC. At the same epoch, Hoodi's gas limit will rise to 200M, matching Sepolia, where Glamsterdam went live on October 6. The Foundation was explicit that this announcement covers Hoodi only: "The mainnet activation date has not yet been decided."

Glamsterdam pairs the Amsterdam execution-layer upgrade with the Gloas consensus-layer upgrade (the portmanteau name combines the two). Its two headline changes, per the Foundation's post:

• Enshrined proposer-builder separation (EIP-7732). Block building moves into the consensus protocol itself: a proposer commits to a builder's payload, the builder later reveals it, and the protocol handles payment — cutting reliance on trusted middleware. A new "payload timeliness committee" attests whether the builder revealed its payload and blob data on time.
• Block-level access lists (EIP-7928). Enforced lists record which accounts and storage slots a block touches, letting clients read state and validate transactions in parallel.

Alongside those, Glamsterdam reprices gas: EIP-8037 raises and separately meters the cost of creating state, and EIP-8038 updates state-access costs, with further changes to intrinsic transaction gas, calldata and access lists. The Foundation's full scheduled list runs to 17 core EIPs plus supporting networking and informational ones.

Key facts

• Hoodi activation: epoch 132,352 / slot 4,235,264 — Oct 26, 2026, 17:42:48 UTC (Ethereum Foundation blog).
• Hoodi gas limit raised to 200M at that epoch, matching Sepolia (EF).
• Sepolia activated Glamsterdam on Oct 6, 2026 (EF).
• Mainnet date: not yet decided; "a separate announcement will cover" it (EF).
• Tracking EIP is 7773; headline changes are EIP-7732 (ePBS) and EIP-7928 (BALs) (EF).

The real-world read This is a testnet milestone, not a mainnet date — a distinction the Foundation itself underlines, telling mainnet users and ETH holders explicitly that "No" action is required. Read it as plumbing on schedule, not shipping. Two things are worth watching. First, the gas repricing is not cosmetic: the Foundation warns that contracts relying on "fixed gas stipends, hardcoded gas limits, or assumptions about remaining gas may need changes," and points developers to a "repricing impact guide." That's the sort of change that quietly breaks live contracts if teams don't test. Second, the only account of what Glamsterdam does here is the Foundation's own blog — a primary source, not marketing, but also the party shipping the upgrade describing its own work. Claims about parallel validation and throughput gains are design intent; whether they hold up is what Sepolia and Hoodi are for. Node operators who stake on Hoodi must update both execution and consensus clients, including new ePBS duties, before the 26th, or fall off the upgraded chain.

Opinion, and whose No forecasts or third-party takes were on offer here; the Foundation made no mainnet-timing prediction, and none should be inferred.

Sources

• Ethereum Foundation Blog, "Glamsterdam Hoodi Testnet Announcement," Oct 16, 2026 — primary source for the schedule, gas limit, EIP list, and operator guidance. The Foundation's own announcement; not sponsored or paid, but the issuer describing its own upgrade.

This is news coverage, not financial or technical advice; node operators should rely on their client teams' release notes before upgrading.