Ethereum Sets October 6 For Glamsterdam’s Public Test

Ethereum has set the date: Glamsterdam, its next major update, will activate on the Sepolia testnet on October 6 at 13:53 UTC. Operators have one week to update their clients or face exclusion from the network. This is the final rehearsal before the mainnet, targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026.

Sepolia, final dress rehearsal before the mainnet

Until recently, the date was still conditional: tests on private networks had revealed finality flaws and a pricing bug. It is now included on the official Ethereum Foundation calendar: activation planned at epoch 353024, slot 11296768, i.e. October 6, 2026 at 13:53:36 UTC. A testnet is used to publicly rehearse updates before the mainnet.

All testnet operators must update the software of both layers before the deadline. On the execution side, the Foundation lists Besu 26.9.0, Geth 1.17.6, and Reth 2.7.0; on the consensus side, Lodestar 1.49.0, Prysm 7.2.0, and Teku 26.9.1.

Prysm validators must also review their configuration: the default gas limit increases to 60 million. ETH holders have nothing to do: the deadline only concerns Sepolia.

ePBS, access lists, gas, what Glamsterdam changes for Ethereum

The main novelty is called ePBS. The separation between block proposers and builders already exists but through external actors. EIP-7732 embeds it into the protocol: the proposer publishes a builder commitment, who then reveals the block, and the network manages payment. The goal: limit dependence on these intermediaries and give validators more time to verify execution.

Glamsterdam adds block-level access lists (EIP-7928): these list the accounts and storage slots used, allowing state reading and validating transactions in parallel.

The update also adjusts gas pricing (EIP-8037 and 8038) to better reflect the cost of creating and accessing data: a project aimed at increasing the network’s execution capacity. Contracts relying on fixed gas limits will therefore need to be tested and sometimes corrected.

Hoodi, mainnet, Hegotá, the next schedule

The focus now shifts to Hoodi, the other network testnet: developer notes mention October 27, without formal decision. The mainnet remains targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026, without a date. Meanwhile, the Foundation has opened its bug bounty program for the Glamsterdam specifications. The formula remains tested: one major update event per year, which Ethereum news follows step by step.

Looking ahead is Hegotá, the following update. Vitalik Buterin estimated on Sunday that this could be the last normal fork of the network, before a shift to recursive STARKs, formal verification, and post-quantum cryptography.

One week of preparation, then a full-scale test. If Sepolia finalizes without incident, the fourth quarter window for the mainnet will become clearer; otherwise, the entire schedule will shift, starting with the Hegotá update, expected in 2027.