Summary
- Ethereum's "Glamsterdam" upgrade raised the block gas limit to 200 million from 60 million, expanding on-chain processing capacity by about threefold.
- The upgrade lowers execution costs and fee volatility for complex smart contracts such as DeFi transactions and NFT minting, while the introduction of Verkle Trees and State Expunging reduces the storage burden on validator nodes.
- With the mainnet expansion, settlement costs for Layer 2 (L2) rollup projects are estimated to have fallen by about 70%%, potentially intensifying fee competition among major L2s such as Arbitrum, Optimism and Base.
Forecast Trend Report by Period
Ethereum has significantly expanded its network capacity through a major scaling upgrade. The move could mark a turning point in its scalability push as competition with high-performance blockchains intensifies.
Crypto media outlet FinanceFeeds reported on May 4 that Ethereum implemented the "Glamsterdam" upgrade on May 1, raising the per-block gas limit to 200 million from 60 million. The change marks the largest capacity expansion in the network's history and increases on-chain throughput by roughly threefold.
The higher gas limit lowers the cost of executing complex smart contracts, including DeFi transactions and large-scale NFT minting. Previously, elevated fees during periods of network congestion had constrained some high-frequency trading and large minting events. The latest change could lower those barriers to entry.
Ethereum also introduced technical measures intended to ease centralization concerns associated with greater scale. The upgrade includes Verkle Trees and State Expunging. Under the new structure, data more than one year old is shifted to external storage or archive nodes, reducing the storage burden on standard validator nodes.
The network also added a mechanism to smooth sharp swings in the base fee. The measure is designed to curb sudden fee spikes during surges in network demand and improve transaction-cost stability.
The upgrade could also reshape the Layer 2 ecosystem. With expanded capacity on Ethereum's mainnet, settlement costs for rollup-based L2 projects are estimated to have fallen by about 70%. That could intensify fee competition among major L2 networks including Arbitrum, Optimism and Base.
The industry is now watching whether Ethereum can further cement a structure in which it strengthens its role as a security-focused settlement layer while L2 networks handle large-scale user traffic.
Minseung Kang
minriver@bloomingbit.ioBlockchain journalist | Writer of Trade Now & Altcoin Now, must-read content for investors.
