Ethereum Glamsterdam upgrade goal: Gas limit increased to 200 million, transfer fees reduced by up to 71%

The Ethereum Glamsterdam hard fork entered the final development testnet phase on Tuesday, locking in ten EIP proposals, positioned as the largest protocol upgrade since the merge.

The two core proposals are: EIP-7732, which directly writes the proposer-builder separation (ePBS) into the consensus layer, replacing the current reliance on off-chain relays like MEV-Boost; and EIP-7928, which introduces block-level access lists (BALs), allowing validators to process unrelated transactions in parallel. The combination of these paves the way for a 200 million Gas limit, increasing approximately three times from the current level of about 60 million, with theoretical throughput reaching around 10,000 TPS.

On the user side, EIP-2780 is expected to make standard ETH transfers up to 71% cheaper. The mainnet activation date has yet to be determined and must first complete validation on the Holesky and Hoodi testnets. Based on historical rhythms, it is expected to go live between September and December 2026. The 200 million Gas limit is a design goal rather than a fork-enforced value, ultimately to be gradually increased by validators through Gas voting signals.