Today, at 13:53 UTC, the Glamsterdam update activates, starting a significant testing period for Ethereum's Sepolia testnet. The fork integrates a significant parallel block validation experiment with changes intended to boost execution capacity. Meanwhile, the Ethereum ecosystem recorded the first atomic cross-chain transaction involving 0.001 ETH between Layer 1 and Layer 2 on mainnet. Together, these advancements give developers two crucial pieces of evidence for Ethereum's upcoming scaling phase.

Glamsterdam Brings ePBS to Sepolia

Glamsterdam integrates the Gloas consensus layer changes with the Amsterdam execution layer modifications. Block-level access lists and created proposer builder separation are its two main improvements.

The relationship between block builders and proposers is now directly incorporated into Ethereum's consensus protocol due to the proposer-builder separation news. In line with EIP-7732, the protocol manages the builder payment while the proposer commits to a builder's execution payload before its disclosure. As a result, less external infrastructure is required to facilitate the transaction between proposers and builders.

Block-level access lists represent the second significant shift. The block records the accounts and storage locations touched during the block, as opposed to finding every state location just during execution. Clients can use this information to carry out state root computations, transaction validation, and disk reads simultaneously.

Block Capacity Jumps to 200 Million Gas

Additionally, the Sepolia test is intended to significantly increase block capacity. Validators will have a far greater task when the network moves from about 60 million gas to a 200 million gas aim.

This increase is significant because the test does more than just determine whether Glamsterdam activates successfully. Developers aim to determine whether clients can reliably handle significantly larger blocks without rendering node operation unfeasible.

In order to prevent some validators from producing blocks at the previous 60 million gas limit, a last-minute Prysm update was published prior to activation. When Glamsterdam activates on Sepolia, Prysm version 7.2.1 automatically increases the relevant setting to 200 million gas.

The result should give Ethereum developers concrete performance data before deciding what capacity increases can eventually be considered for mainnet.

Glamsterdam is now live on Sepolia. ✅

The testnet upgrade has activated successfully, marking another major step toward Glamsterdam’s wider rollout.

Follow the upgrade status, slots, epochs & network progress on EIPsInsight 👇
https://t.co/1meagwpf1e

Ethereum #Glamsterdam #Sepolia

— EIPsInsight (@EIPsInsight) October 6, 2026

State Repricing Changes Ethereum’s Gas Model

Glamsterdam additionally changes Ethereum's accounting for resource utilisation connected to the state. While EIP 8038 modifies state access pricing, EIP 8037 independently measures the cost of establishing a new state.

Additional changes impact block gas accounting, calldata, intrinsic transaction gas, and access lists. With these adjustments, gas prices should more accurately represent the resources used for state expansion and execution.

This has a direct impact on infrastructure and applications. Because the new regulations may alter the cost of certain processes, contracts and software that rely on constant gas assumptions may need to be changed.

Instead of depending on earlier hardcoded assumptions, the Ethereum Foundation has already cautioned developers to test wallets, gas estimators, and other infrastructure against the updated pricing regulations.

Ethereum Tests Atomic L1 to L2 Execution

In addition to the Sepolia fork, the Ethereum Economic Zone has demonstrated an atomic transaction between a Layer 2 network and the Ethereum mainnet. The transaction includes a rollup state update and included 0.001 ETH.

The atomic execution is what matters. In order to prevent one side from finishing while the other is left unfinished, the connected actions either succeed together or regress together. According to EEZ contributor Eduardo Antuña Díez, the transaction is the first atomic cross-chain L1-to-L2 transaction.

🔥🔥🔥 The first atomic cross-chain L1->L2 transaction ever! 🔥🔥🔥

— The Ethereum Economic Zone (@etheconomiczone) October 5, 2026

As more activity shifts between rollups, the demonstration focuses on one of Ethereum's largest structural problems. Instead of relying on distinct bridge steps, EEZ is built to allow Ethereum and linked rollups to communicate within a single transaction.

This is not proof of large-scale manufacturing readiness, but rather an engineering demonstration due to the 0.001 ETH value. Nevertheless, the rollup state update and value transfer together demonstrate that atomic cross-layer execution has shifted to the Ethereum mainnet.

Developers are now given yet another crucial test by Glamsterdam. Sepolia's results will be crucial in determining how much of the upgrade and its improved capacity should eventually reach the Ethereum mainnet if it can successfully manage the larger blocks, parallel validation, and updated gas accounting.

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