Ethereum Glamsterdam Faces Backlash Over Gas Changes

Several well-known developers have called on core developers to halt the Ethereum Glamsterdam upgrade in its current form. They caution that the proposed gas cost adjustments could disrupt smart contracts holding user funds.

“Please don’t break the chain,” wrote the founder of Curve Finance. “It looks like the Glamsterdam upgrade would lead to another emergency hard fork back, with a lot of drama.”

Developers Resist Ethereum Glamsterdam’s Proposed Gas Changes

At the heart of the dispute is EIP-8037, which raises gas costs for creating new state, such as storage entries and new contracts.

Some smart contracts, however, set a fixed gas amount for these steps or check the remaining gas during a transaction.

If prices increase, those calls could run out of gas and fail. Because deployed contracts are immutable, developers cannot easily fix them, potentially locking user funds.

A prominent DeFi developer called the plan “completely ridiculous.”

this is completely ridiculous

besides the already huge list of 200,000 affected contracts in ethereum/repricing-impact, i found multiple methodological issues that make it miss many more.

it affects deployment and operation of several high profile protocols, not just some… https://t.co/g4CnI20fKz

— banteg (@banteg) November 7, 2026

Another developer said his team had identified the same problems a security firm later flagged, even before Glamsterdam launched on the Sepolia testnet.

“Rushing out Glamsterdam now disregarding the community feedback would be a mistake,” the developer wrote.

An Ethereum Foundation board member also opposed the upgrade. “I’m not gonna push for a fork that breaks invariants that were unknown until ~2 weeks ago,” the security researcher wrote.

This criticism follows earlier trouble for Ethereum Glamsterdam, one of two major upgrades developers planned for 2026. In October, core developers delayed a Glamsterdam test on the Hoodi testnet after security researchers flagged risks.

Ethereum Backer Withdraws Call for Speedy Activation

The backlash even altered minds among Ethereum Glamsterdam supporters. A prominent Ethereum community member initially urged activation “asap.” He argued that Ethereum guarantees network access, not specific gas prices.

Hours later, however, the advocate reversed course. “We should (clearly, now) not continue towards Glam activation asap. I was wrong to say so,” he wrote. The problem, he added, is “essentially worse than is generally understood.”

The advocate also admitted that the community collectively failed on the design, due diligence, and public communication. Gas introspection, he wrote, is “a very serious issue that needs immediate remediation and way more sunlight.”

The bad news on Glam's gas opcode repricing debacle is that we collectively fucked up the design, adequate diligence, and sufficient public communication for us to sooner come to correct consensus on the issue.

The good news imo is that we have learned a lot over the years about…

— Ryan Berckmans ⟠ (@ryanberckmans) November 7, 2026

Consequently, core developers are under pressure to release more data before Ethereum Glamsterdam reaches mainnet. The dispute also comes as Ethereum ETFs record their worst month for flows since launch.

Meanwhile, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has already called the next upgrade, Hegota, Ethereum’s last “normal” fork.