After a 65%

For years, Ethereum’s scaling roadmap focused primarily on layer-2 networks such as Arbitrum, Base and Optimism. Rollups absorbed most user activity while Ethereum increasingly positioned itself as a settlement and coordination layer.

That strategy worked. Ethereum’s ecosystem now processes more than 105 million daily transactions across its layer-2 landscape, while Ethereum mainnet itself accounts for just over 2 million per day, according to L2beat. Yet it also created fragmentation: liquidity, users and applications became dispersed across dozens of chains, while the Ethereum base layer itself remained comparatively constrained.

Glamsterdam suggests Ethereum is no longer scaling only around the base layer — it is scaling the base layer itself. The upgrade introduces parallel execution, allowing multiple non-conflicting transactions to run simultaneously across different CPU cores instead of sequentially. In practical terms, Ethereum shifts from a single-lane to a multi-lane processing system.

At the same time, gas repricing proposals such as EIP-7904 and EIP-8037 modernize Ethereum’s fee model by aligning gas costs more closely with current hardware and storage realities, replacing assumptions made years ago.

Those changes could dramatically expand Ethereum’s throughput. The network’s gas limit — which determines how much computation can fit into each block — remained near 30 million for years before rising toward 60 million in early 2025. After Glamsterdam, developers are targeting a floor of up to 200 million gas, more than triple the current levels.

As the founder of crypto media Bankless, Ryan Sean Adams described it, “Ethereum L1 just woke up.” drop from its November 2025 high near $4,955, ether is recovering alongside the broader crypto market. Since bottoming near $1,743 in February, ETH has climbed back above $2,360, cautiously printing higher highs as risk appetite returns.

Like the rest of crypto, Ethereum remains sensitive to macroeconomic liquidity, interest-rate expectations and geopolitical tensions. Yet Ethereum’s own technological roadmap also plays a major role in shaping long-term investor sentiment. That is why attention is increasingly shifting toward Glamsterdam, Ethereum’s next major protocol upgrade expected in June 2026.

If implemented as planned, the update could mark one of the network’s most consequential architectural changes since The Merge — not by changing Ethereum’s monetary policy, but by dramatically improving the blockchain’s base-layer scalability and efficiency.

                                             Ethereum L1 scaling, @RyanSAdams on X

According to Ethereum developers, this scaling push could bring the network closer to 100 transactions per second on layer 1 alone, with much larger long-term ambitions if parallel execution and future upgrades continue progressing.

The market’s reaction to major Ethereum upgrades has historically followed a two-phase pattern. In the months leading up to a significant hard fork, ETH often rallies sharply as traders price in the renewed ecosystem optimism. Ether gained roughly 77% ahead of The Merge in 2022, around 55% before the Shanghai upgrade in 2023, 76% before Dencun in 2024 and nearly 89% before Pectra in 2025.

Yet once the upgrade is successfully deployed, the pattern frequently reverses. The event itself tends to trigger a classic “sell the news” reaction, with ETH either stalling or retracing as speculative positioning unwinds and traders rotate toward the next narrative.

                                                         ETH/USD 1-day, TradingView

Over the longer term, Ethereum upgrades have repeatedly reshaped the market’s perception of the network’s viability. The Merge reduced Ethereum’s energy consumption by more than 99%, while Dencun sharply lowered layer-2 transaction costs through blob scaling. Glamsterdam could become the upgrade that proves Ethereum can significantly improve its current 36 TPS (transactions per second) throughput without sacrificing decentralization.

That distinction matters. Several rival blockchains, including Solana and TRON, achieved high throughputs of 3,000 and 140 TPS, respectively, using more centralized validator structures or heavier hardware requirements. Ethereum developers have consistently tried to avoid that tradeoff, emphasizing node accessibility and decentralization alongside scaling.

The scaling improvements could also affect Ethereum’s economics. Higher throughput may support greater on-chain activity directly on Ethereum’s base layer, potentially increasing ETH burn under EIP-1559 during periods of elevated demand. At the same time, cheaper execution and lower latency could make Ethereum more attractive for stablecoins, tokenized assets and institutional applications increasingly migrating on-chain.

Glamsterdam alone will not determine ether’s price trajectory. Yet the upgrade reinforces a broader thesis increasingly embraced by Ethereum supporters: the network is no longer merely defending its position — it is aggressively upgrading its technological foundation again.