- Ethereum’s core developers have been progressing through a sequence of named network upgrades in 2026, with Glamsterdam following the earlier Fusaka upgrade
- Each upgrade typically moves through a defined sequence of testnets, Sepolia and Hoodi among them, before any change reaches Ethereum’s live mainnet
- Glamsterdam’s own rollout is currently delayed on Hoodi, illustrating how the testnet stage exists specifically to catch problems before they can reach real users
Ethereum’s development process in 2026 has followed a now-familiar pattern: core developers work through a sequence of named network upgrades, each bundling together a set of specific protocol changes, and each moving through a defined rollout sequence across multiple test networks before anything reaches Ethereum’s live mainnet, where actual economic value is at stake. The current upgrade in this sequence is called Glamsterdam, which follows an earlier 2026 upgrade known as Fusaka.
The rollout sequence for a major Ethereum upgrade typically starts with activation on a smaller testnet such as Sepolia, giving developers an initial environment to confirm the upgrade’s code behaves as expected under conditions that mimic mainnet without putting real assets at risk. Glamsterdam’s activation on Sepolia took place on October 6, 2026, according to the Ethereum Foundation’s own published schedule, clearing that first checkpoint without the complications that would later affect its next stage.
After Sepolia, upgrades typically move to Hoodi, a separate testnet that serves as a further checkpoint closer to an eventual mainnet rollout. It was at this Hoodi stage that Glamsterdam hit a snag: the activation, originally scheduled for October 26, 2026, was postponed on October 22 after developers determined they needed more time to study how one of the upgrade’s included changes, a gas-repricing proposal called EIP-8037, might interact with smart contracts already live on Ethereum’s mainnet.
This kind of delay is exactly what the multi-stage testnet process exists to catch. Rather than discovering a compatibility problem with existing mainnet contracts after an upgrade has already gone live everywhere, developers can identify concerns like the EIP-8037 interaction during the testnet stages and either fix the underlying issue or simply wait before proceeding, as happened here. No new date for Hoodi’s Glamsterdam activation has been set as of this writing, meaning the upgrade’s eventual mainnet rollout, which would typically follow sometime after a successful Hoodi stage, remains correspondingly unscheduled as well.
Ethereum’s upgrade cadence has generally accelerated in recent years compared with the network’s earlier history, with core developers aiming to ship meaningful protocol improvements on a more predictable, recurring basis rather than bundling years of changes into infrequent, larger overhauls. Whether Glamsterdam’s current Hoodi delay meaningfully slows that broader cadence, or simply represents a normal part of the testing process working as intended, will become clearer once developers settle on a revised schedule. The announcement, published on the Ethereum Foundation’s own blog, remains the most recent official word on where the upgrade currently stands.
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