Ethereum diamond above validator nodes during the Hoodi scaling test

Ethereum Sets October 26 for a 200 Million-Gas Hoodi Stress Test

By Isaac • October 17, 2026 3:14 pm • Comments

Ethereum has put its next major scaling rehearsal on the calendar. The Glamsterdam upgrade is scheduled to activate on the Hoodi testnet on October 26 at 17:42:48 UTC, and the network will begin targeting a 200 million gas limit at the same epoch.

That is a testnet event rather than an Ethereum mainnet launch. Hoodi is where the protocol’s next set of changes will face a more demanding validator environment before developers decide when those changes are ready for the live chain.

In its official Glamsterdam Hoodi announcement, the Ethereum Foundation fixed the activation at epoch 132,352 and slot 4,235,264. It also made the operational deadline clear: Hoodi node operators need compatible execution and consensus clients before the fork, while validators must update both their beacon node and validator client.

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One implementation team has already shipped its required release. Ethrex said version 30.0.0 includes the Hoodi fork schedule and warned that older releases will stop following the upgraded testnet after activation.

Why the 200 million figure matters

A block gas limit is a ceiling on how much computational work can fit into one block. Raising that target gives the network room to process more activity, but it also increases the load placed on nodes.

That tradeoff is exactly why Ethereum is testing this step on Hoodi before making any decision about mainnet.

CryptoSlate explains that the 200 million target will guide a gradual adjustment under Ethereum’s existing gas-limit rules rather than flip the testnet instantly to a rigid new ceiling. It also notes that throughput still depends on the mix of transactions and that lower fees are not guaranteed simply because the network can accommodate more work.

Glamsterdam combines Amsterdam on Ethereum’s execution layer with Gloas on its consensus layer. Two of the largest changes are enshrined proposer-builder separation and block-level access lists.

Enshrined proposer-builder separation moves the relationship between block proposers and builders into Ethereum’s consensus rules. The goal is to reduce dependence on trusted middleware while giving validators more time to verify execution payloads.

Block-level access lists record the accounts, storage locations, and state changes touched by a block, allowing clients to do more work in parallel.

Those changes affect how Ethereum handles real work. More parallel execution and a better-defined builder process could help the network increase base-layer capacity without abandoning the decentralization and validation standards that make it valuable.

The test also carries real risk

More block space is not free. Larger blocks can demand more bandwidth, memory, and processing power from node operators.

Glamsterdam also changes several gas costs, which means application developers need to test contracts that rely on hardcoded limits, fixed stipends, or assumptions about how much gas remains during execution.

That is why the Hoodi phase deserves more attention than a routine software release. It is a live rehearsal for whether Ethereum can push significantly more work through its base layer while keeping verification practical across multiple independent client teams.

The broader Ethereum account framed the development push in terms of faster upgrades and improving reliability, pointing to formal verification as part of the reason the protocol can keep moving without treating speed and safety as opposites.

For ordinary ETH holders, there is nothing to do on October 26. The Foundation explicitly says the announcement concerns Hoodi, and a separate decision will be required for mainnet.

Still, this is the kind of test that can shape Ethereum’s next chapter. If Hoodi handles the larger gas target and new block-building system cleanly, developers will have stronger evidence that Ethereum can expand its base layer without trading away the resilience that has kept it running.

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