Ethereum 2026: Scaling Plans, Forks, and the Coming Changes

Ethereum 2026 is shaping up to be a turning point year for the network, with major upgrades aimed at handling more transactions, lowering congestion, and preparing for wider use of zero-knowledge proofs. Developers are planning two key forks, higher gas limits, and bigger changes to how blocks are built and verified

Ethereum 2026 and the Glamsterdam fork

The biggest planned upgrade in Ethereum 2026 is the Glamsterdam hard fork, expected around the middle of the year. This fork introduces changes that affect how transactions are processed inside each block.

One of the core updates is the use of block access lists. Until now, Ethereum has processed transactions mostly in sequence. With block access lists, block producers provide a map that shows which transactions touch which parts of the system

Notably, this allows clients to run many transactions at the same time using multiple CPU cores. The result is faster processing without breaking the rules of the network.

Another major change in Glamsterdam is enshrined in proposer builder separation, often shortened to ePBS. Today, much of the block building process relies on external systems such as MEV-Boost. ePBS brings this process directly into Ethereum’s consensus layer

Builders focus on ordering transactions, while proposers decide which block to publish. This setup reduces central pressure, improves censorship resistance, and gives the network more time to handle zero-knowledge proof checks.

Gas limits, ZK Proofs, and Layer 1 Growth

Ethereum will also bring steady increases to the gas limit. The network has already moved to 60 million gas per block. Developers and researchers expect this number to rise to around 100 million early in the year, with a possible jump to 200 million after ePBS is live.

A key part of this plan is the shift toward zero-knowledge proof verification. Instead of re-running every transaction, some validators will verify cryptographic proofs

Ethereum Foundation researchers estimate that about 10% of validators may adopt this approach in 2026. This reduces load on the network and supports higher limits without harming stability.

While Ethereum will not reach 10,000 transactions per second right away, the groundwork is being laid.

Ethereum 2026, Data blobs, and the Heze-Bogota fork

Beyond the base layer, Ethereum 2026 also focuses on layer 2 scaling. The number of data blobs per block is expected to rise sharply, possibly to more than 70. This allows rollups to process hundreds of thousands of transactions per second while settling on Ethereum.

Later in the year, the Heze-Bogota fork is planned. This upgrade centers on censorship resistance through fork-choice inclusion lists. These lists allow validators to require that certain transactions be included, as long as honest participation exists in the network.

Ethereum rolled out two major upgrades this year, Fusaka and Pectra, both of which boosted network performance and set the stage for further growth. With more upgrades planned, 2026 is shaping up to be a new phase of expansion for the Ethereum blockchain.

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