Ethereum Upgrade Delayed: What Are the Risks for ETH?

The Ethereum Foundation has postponed testing the Glamsterdam upgrade on the Hoodi testnet, which had been scheduled for October 26, 2026 at 17:42 UTC, or October 27 at 00:42 WIB. Developers decided to investigate further how proposed gas changes under EIP-8037 interact with smart contracts already used on Ethereum mainnet. Source: Ethereum Foundation announcement.

The delay concerns a test network. The Foundation says the announcement does not establish a Glamsterdam mainnet activation date and does not require ETH holders or mainnet users to take action.

For investors, the immediate uncertainty concerns scheduling and test results rather than evidence that ETH holdings have been disrupted. Application developers face a more technical question: whether revised gas costs could change how existing contracts process a transaction.

Postponement of Glamsterdam activation on the Hoodi testnet. Source: Ethereum Foundation, October 22, 2026. The announcement concerns Hoodi and does not establish a mainnet activation date.

What Was Postponed?

Glamsterdam combines Amsterdam on the execution layer with Gloas on the consensus layer. The execution layer processes transactions and smart contracts, while the consensus layer coordinates the network’s agreement on valid blocks.

The Ethereum Foundation says the postponement removes both scheduled Hoodi activations. The planned increase of Hoodi’s gas limit to 200 million at the same epoch was also removed from the scheduled configuration.

The configuration change applies to a future upgrade that had not occurred. It does not reverse Hoodi’s blockchain history. The Foundation’s announcement did not set a replacement date.

The old schedule may still appear in articles or pages that have not been updated. Readers should check publication and update dates, then follow subsequent official announcements before treating a schedule as current.

Why Do Gas Changes Require Testing?

Gas measures resources used by an Ethereum transaction. A user’s final fee depends on gas consumed and the applicable gas price. Changing the cost of an operation can affect how much gas a contract needs to complete the same work.

EIP-8037 proposes changes to the cost of creating state, information the network must retain, such as new accounts, contract code, or storage slots. The goal is to make those costs better reflect resource requirements as network capacity grows.

This does not mean every ordinary ETH transaction will become more expensive by the same amount. The outcome depends on the operations performed, the gas price at the time, the final rules adopted, and how an application constructs its transactions.

When Old Gas Assumptions Meet New Rules

A smart contract can call another contract with a specified amount of gas. Some applications set fixed gas limits or build logic around an estimate of the gas remaining after an operation.

The Ethereum Foundation says historical transaction replays under the proposed schedule found a small group of contracts that rely on assumptions that may change. Some issues can be addressed by raising gas limits, while others require closer code review. Source: Ethereum Foundation repricing impact guidance.

Categories observed when historical transactions were replayed under the proposed Glamsterdam gas schedule. Source: Ethereum Foundation, August 24, 2026. 

Consider a hypothetical application that assigns a fixed gas limit to a call to another contract. If the cost of a required operation changes and the limit is no longer sufficient, the call may fail even though it previously succeeded. The actual outcome depends on the code, the operations involved, and the final rules adopted.

Increasing the gas limit is not a universal fix. A contract whose behavior depends on assumptions about remaining gas may require changes to its logic or more extensive testing. The postponement gives developers time to assess those cases before setting a new Hoodi schedule.

Four Effects That Should Be Considered Separately

The delay can affect different groups in different ways. Technical consequences for an application are distinct from ETH’s market price.

A. Application and Smart Contract Developers

Application teams need to check whether their contracts use fixed gas values, cached estimates, or logic based on remaining gas. Testing can identify transactions that continue to succeed, require more gas, or behave differently.

A result for one contract cannot be generalized to every application. Already-deployed contracts that cannot be modified also have different remediation options from applications that remain upgradeable.

B. Hoodi Validators and Operators

Testnet operators need to ensure their execution and consensus clients use configurations consistent with the postponement. A client retaining the old schedule could follow rules different from the revised network configuration.

The Ethereum Foundation provides client releases and operator guidance in its Hoodi announcement. Operators should still check release notes that explicitly confirm support for the scheduling change.

C. Ethereum Mainnet Users

The announcement does not ask users to move ETH, connect a wallet to a new website, or pay a fee to retain their assets. The Foundation specifically says ETH holders do not need to act because of the Hoodi update.

Messages using an upgrade as a reason to request a seed phrase or private key should be ignored. Users can check official announcements before following instructions attributed to developers.

D. ETH Traders and Holders

The delay may change some investors’ expectations for the development schedule. ETH’s price remains influenced by other factors, including Bitcoin, macroeconomic conditions, ETF flows, and leveraged positioning.

An ETH price rise or decline on the same day is insufficient to establish that the Hoodi postponement caused it. Stronger analysis requires comparing the announcement time with market transactions and other developments.

Does the Delay Mean Ethereum Is Unsafe?

A compatibility finding is a reason to test and repair proposed changes before wider implementation. The Hoodi announcement does not say Ethereum mainnet was hacked or that every smart contract is failing.

Conversely, an initial test finding that most transactions were unchanged does not establish that every contract is safe. Individual applications can use different structures and gas assumptions, requiring their own tests.

Assessment must distinguish risks identified in proposed rules from an incident that has occurred on mainnet. Those are different statuses and should not be used interchangeably.

What Should Readers Watch Next?

Several developments can clarify the testing process:

• A replacement activation date for Hoodi.

• Findings on EIP-8037 interactions with existing contracts.

• Changes to the gas proposal or developer compatibility guidance.

• Execution and consensus client readiness on test networks.

• A separate mainnet schedule announcement, if one is established.

Readers can follow ETH prices on MEXC for market context. Price should be considered alongside network developments and macroeconomic factors rather than used as the sole evidence of an upgrade’s success or failure.

The Hoodi postponement gives developers more time to test the consequences of gas changes. For ETH holders, the next meaningful information is the outcome of that review and a new official schedule, rather than the old date that has already been removed.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information and analysis, not investment advice or a guarantee of smart contract security. Upgrade schedules, technical proposals, and ETH prices may change.