The Ethereum Foundation's Protocol DevOps team issued a warning on August 17 that wallets, indexers and gas estimators could break as the Glamsterdam upgrade changes the 21,000-gas assumption for some ETH transfers. According to reports from the foundation, any tool relying on a hardcoded maximum gas limit will break, with the upgrade due to activate on the Platåberget testnet on August 20. The team urged application and infrastructure developers to test their systems on Platåberget, a public testnet designed to stay online for several months. ChainThink reports that the foundation's Protocol Development and Operations team emphasized that the Gas model adjustments may affect certain wallets, indexers, and Gas estimation tools—particularly those relying on hard-coded maximum Gas limits or single-dimensional Gas estimates. The team recommended that developers test the relevant systems on the Platåberget public testnet as soon as possible.
Under the planned gas repricing package, the foundation said software can no longer safely assume that Ethereum has a single fixed gas ceiling or that common operations will continue to cost the same amount in every case. As reported by the foundation, the changes are designed around a roughly 210 million gas floor and alter the price of individual operations as well as assumptions tied to the block gas limit. EIP 8037 introduces a separate state-gas charge for operations that create new state, with creating an account, deploying code or writing a new storage slot metered at a fixed cost per state byte and charged at runtime. In addition to the gas-model changes, Glamsterdam includes enshrined proposer-builder separation, block-level access lists, and higher size limits for contracts and init code.
According to the foundation's warning, a basic ETH transfer will not always carry the same gas cost depending on the recipient account status. Sending ETH to an account that already exists will continue to cost 21,000 gas, with the amount broken into the base transaction cost, cold account access and the value-transfer cost. However, sending funds to an address that does not yet exist will also incur a state-gas charge of 183,600 units tied to creating the new account. The foundation said developers should revisit applications that treat 21,000 gas as sufficient for every ETH transfer, as gas estimators built around only one gas dimension may return incorrect estimates. ChainThink reports that after the upgrade, regular ETH transfers to existing accounts still require 21,000 gas, but transfers to new accounts will incur additional state gas fees. Developers from the Ethereum Foundation explained that the reasoning behind this change is that creating a new address adds a permanent record that Ethereum's computers may have to hold forever, while adjusting balances for existing accounts requires less work.
Forkcast data shows Platåberget launched on August 13, giving developers an early environment for Glamsterdam before the upgrade moves to Sepolia and Hoodi. The Glamsterdam fork will be deployed to the Ethereum mainnet first on Thursday, followed by the Sepolia and Hoodi testnets, according to the foundation. The Glamsterdam fork is scheduled for network activation this Thursday, with public validator and builder deposits available as part of the testing process. The Protocol DevOps team has encouraged solo stakers, distributed validator technology projects, custom software operators and large staking providers to test their infrastructure on the testnet, which allows users to deposit new validators and experiment with validator and builder-deposit workflows. Unlike earlier short-lived devnets, Platåberget gives developers and users a more stable environment to test the post-Glamsterdam network and identify problems before mainnet activation. Nobody sending ETH needs to do anything this week, as the warning is specifically aimed at companies whose software users depend on.
After feedback from Platåberget has been incorporated into specifications and client software, a non-finality devnet is expected to follow within the month to test difficult consensus scenarios, according to the foundation. Sepolia and Hoodi are due to receive Glamsterdam after the development networks remain stable, while Ethereum mainnet activation will follow successful upgrades on the long-lived testnets. Development on Ethereum's next scheduled fork is also proceeding separately, with 66 proposals currently under review for the Hegotá upgrade, targeting a 2027 launch. The timeline marks a shift from previous expectations, as earlier this year the Ethereum Foundation said Glamsterdam was targeting the first half of 2026, with Hegotá expected to follow later in the year. Ethereum researcher Toni Wahrstätter noted that developers are currently assessing 66 proposals for Hegotá, with the proposed-for-inclusion list expected to be finalized around August 27, and client teams having until September 10 to submit their preference lists.
