Ethereum’s next big upgrade has hit a speed bump on its final practice track. Developers have called off the October 26 activation of Glamsterdam on the Hoodi testnet.
Node operators are now being told to run client software that does not include the scheduled fork. The mainnet activation date, which was never set in stone, remains undecided.
What changed on Hoodi
Glamsterdam had been slated to go live on Hoodi on October 26, 2026, at 17:42:48 UTC. That timestamp corresponded to epoch 132,352, the point where the network would have switched to the new rules.
Hoodi is one of Ethereum’s public test networks. It is where client teams and validators rehearse an upgrade under realistic conditions before anything touches real money.
The prior plan had a clear sequence. Operators were expected to upgrade both their execution and consensus clients to fork-ready versions before the activation epoch. Releases such as Lodestar 1.50.0 and Nimbus 26.10.1 had been listed among the compatible versions.
Skipping that step under the old plan meant getting stranded on the pre-fork chain. The new guidance flips the risk: operators should avoid running a fork-enabled build on Hoodi for now.
What Glamsterdam is supposed to deliver
Glamsterdam is a combined upgrade. It pairs execution-layer changes, known as Amsterdam, with consensus-layer changes, known as Gloas.
The headline feature is enshrined proposer-builder separation, or ePBS, introduced mainly through EIP-7732. Today, Ethereum relies on outside middleware to split those jobs between block proposers and block builders. ePBS bakes that division of labor directly into the protocol itself.
The upgrade also adds block-level access lists. These let a block declare upfront which parts of the network’s state it will touch, which can help nodes process transactions more efficiently.
Gas pricing adjustments round out the package. Together, these changes are aimed at scaling Ethereum’s base layer, often called Layer 1.
One of the more eye-catching planned changes involved Hoodi’s block gas limit target. It was expected to jump from roughly 60 million to 200 million after the fork.
The Sepolia precedent
The cancellation stands out because Glamsterdam already cleared one testnet. It activated on Sepolia on October 6, 2026.
The Hoodi gas limit increase was designed to mirror how Sepolia behaved after its fork. So the upgrade had, at least on one network, already done what it was built to do.
Before the change in plans, discussions around a mainnet launch had hinged on what developers observed on Hoodi. Early December had been floated as a potential candidate window. With the Hoodi activation off the calendar, that window now looks considerably less certain.
What this means for Ethereum
For everyday ETH holders, nothing changes today. Users holding ETH or running mainnet nodes had no required action ahead of the upgrade, and that remains the case.
The people who need to pay attention are Hoodi node operators and validators. Running the wrong client build on a testnet will not cost anyone real funds, but it does muddy the test data developers rely on. Following the revised guidance keeps the rehearsal clean.
The next signals to watch are a rescheduled Hoodi epoch, fresh client releases from teams like Lodestar and Nimbus, and any update on whether the early December mainnet window survives.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Estefano Gomez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.