Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade: first base-layer hard fork since the Merge
Slated for the second half of 2026, Glamsterdam targets base-layer throughput — Ethereum's first hard fork aimed at the base layer since it moved to proof of stake.
Ethereum's next major hard fork, known as Glamsterdam, is slated for the second half of 2026 — the first upgrade to target the network's base-layer throughput since the Merge moved Ethereum to proof of stake.
Beyond the protocol itself, institutional demand is building in ways that don't depend on short-term price. BlackRock's staked-ETH product (ETHB) distributes monthly yield to shareholders, while JPMorgan's tokenized money-market fund runs on Ethereum — both sources of demand that operate largely independent of day-to-day momentum.
A tale of two upgrades
Solana is preparing its own leap. Co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko has said the Alpenglow consensus upgrade could ship as early as Q3 2026, cutting transaction finality from roughly 12.8 seconds to about 150 milliseconds by introducing two new components — Votor and Rotor — and moving validator voting off-chain to ease congestion.
The contrast captures the moment: two of the largest networks racing to prove that base-layer performance, not just narratives, will decide the next cycle.
Based on reporting by Crypto.com · read the original.