Ethereum Glamsterdam: Sepolia Blocks Leave Most New Gas Capacity Unused

Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade has increased Sepolia’s block-gas limit from roughly 60 million to almost 200 million, allowing developers to test the network with a significantly larger processing budget. The initial results are positive, but sampled blocks consumed less than half of the available capacity. The test also does not mean Ethereum will adopt the same gas limit on mainnet.

More than 25 consecutive blocks consumed approximately 52 million to 92 million gas, representing about 26% to 46% of the available limit. During a separate six-minute testing window, all 32 scheduled blocks were successfully produced, while 99.97% of eligible testnet stake participated in votes supporting finality. Hoodi is tentatively scheduled to receive the upgrade on October 27, subject to the outcome of the Sepolia testing.

Sepolia’s Gas Increase Tests Capacity, Not Final Throughput

Glamsterdam went live on Sepolia on Tuesday, October 6. By Thursday, October 8, the testnet was producing blocks with a gas limit close to 200 million, compared with approximately 60 million before the upgrade, according to CoinDesk.

Gas represents the amount of computational work required to execute transactions. When demand exceeds the amount of space available in Ethereum blocks, users compete for inclusion, potentially driving transaction fees higher. Raising the gas limit could allow more transactions to fit into each block before that competition becomes more intense.

However, tripling the block-gas allowance does not automatically translate into three times the number of transactions. Glamsterdam also adjusts the gas costs associated with certain operations, meaning the number of transactions a block can accommodate will depend on the types of activity taking place and the updated pricing for those operations.

Several reviews covering more than 25 consecutive testnet blocks showed gas usage ranging from around 52 million to 92 million. That equals approximately 26% to 46% of the available capacity. No sampled block came close to the new ceiling, meaning the test has yet to expose the network to the kind of consistently full blocks that would create the greatest demands on node operators.

The upgrade also changes the way processing responsibilities are distributed between parties that assemble transactions and validators that publish blocks. This gives validators additional time to verify transaction computations.

Glamsterdam further introduces lists identifying accounts and stored data touched by transactions. These lists can allow software to retrieve information in advance and process unrelated transactions concurrently. Together, these changes connect Ethereum’s increased block capacity with its wider scaling strategy and Layer-2 ecosystem.

Block Production and Finality Remained Strong

A separate six-minute voting period early Thursday produced another encouraging result. All 32 scheduled blocks were proposed, while 99.97% of eligible testnet stake voted in favor of finality, according to the ethPandaOps explorer. Finality refers to the point at which Ethereum considers its transaction history effectively settled.

The results indicate that the upgraded test configuration successfully produced its scheduled blocks and maintained extremely high participation from eligible validators during that period. However, they do not prove that sustained blocks approaching 200 million gas would remain safe under heavier activity or across all of the conditions encountered on Ethereum mainnet.

Sepolia is a public Ethereum testnet where developers can test software and upgrades using tokens that have no real-world value. As a result, the network provides a live environment for evaluating Glamsterdam, but its performance should not be interpreted as a direct forecast of how much additional transaction volume Ethereum mainnet will eventually handle.

Hoodi Comes Next as Mainnet Timing Remains Open

Hoodi is expected to be the next public testnet to receive Glamsterdam, with October 27 currently being considered as the target date. That timing remains dependent on the results from Sepolia. Ethereum’s mainnet activation date has not been determined, and developers have not finalized the gas limit that would be used in production.

Sepolia’s performance will help guide the next stage of testing, but a key distinction remains. Increasing the gas limit on a testnet demonstrates that developers are experimenting with additional capacity; it does not confirm that Ethereum mainnet is ready to operate at the same level.

Before any production decision is made, developers will need to evaluate block production, validator workloads, and the updated computational and data-storage costs alongside the higher gas ceiling.

Glamsterdam is one component of Ethereum’s broader protocol development roadmap, where changes to capacity are evaluated alongside network economics, functionality, and scalability. For now, the clearest takeaway is that Sepolia is successfully testing a much larger gas budget while blocks remain well below the new limit—not that Ethereum mainnet is guaranteed to achieve a threefold increase in throughput.

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