Is Ethereum falling behind or preparing for its biggest leap?

Ethereum has been around long enough that it’s no longer the new kid on the block. Competing chains are faster and cheaper, and it’s fair to ask: is Ethereum falling behind, or quietly setting up its next big leap? The answer lies in a series of upgrades planned through 2026, especially Glamsterdam and Hegotá.

Why Ethereum needs another round of upgrades

Ethereum is the base layer for a huge amount of crypto activity: stablecoins, tokenized assets, DeFi, NFTs, and more recently, institutional use. All of this demand competes for limited block space on the main chain.

When demand spikes, the network can slow down, fees rise, and the user experience suffers. That’s the core problem these upgrades are trying to solve: how to support far more activity without sacrificing security or decentralization.

Over the last few years, Ethereum has already shipped major upgrades like the Merge and Dencun, and has more on the way such as Pectra and Fusaka. The next big focus is what happens in 2026 and beyond.

Back to basics: Ethereum, ETH, and the base layer

Ethereum is a blockchain network that lets developers build decentralized applications. ETH is the native asset used to pay for transactions and secure the network.

When people talk about an “Ethereum upgrade,” they’re talking about changes to how the core network (Layer 1, or L1) works. This matters because L1 is where transactions are ultimately finalized and where security guarantees come from, even if most activity moves to faster Layer 2 networks.

If you’re interested in how this long-term vision compares to Bitcoin’s, it’s worth looking at how both networks are evolving toward 2026 in the real winner between Bitcoin and Ethereum in 2026.

Glamsterdam: the next major Ethereum upgrade

Glamsterdam is expected to be the next big Ethereum upgrade on the roadmap. Its goal is simple to describe but hard to achieve: let Ethereum scale more smoothly without becoming slower, more expensive, or harder to use.

It does this through two key changes:

• Bringing more of the transaction-building process directly into Ethereum itself

• Letting the network better predict what each block will touch so it can process more in parallel

Enshrined proposer-builder separation, in plain English

Every Ethereum transaction gets bundled with others into a block, which is then added to the chain. Today, a lot of the work of putting together those blocks relies on third-party software and infrastructure.

This setup works, but it makes Ethereum more dependent on a small number of outside players. It can also make the system less transparent and harder to reason about.

Glamsterdam introduces what’s called “enshrined proposer-builder separation” (PBS). In simple terms, this means more of the block-building logic is moved into Ethereum’s own protocol rules instead of being left entirely to external software.

The benefits are:

• More reliability: fewer critical pieces sitting outside the core protocol

• More transparency: clearer, standardized rules for how blocks are built

• Less centralization risk: less reliance on a handful of powerful infrastructure providers

Block-level access lists: making Ethereum more parallel

The second big Glamsterdam change is about how Ethereum handles heavy traffic. Right now, the network doesn’t know in advance exactly which accounts, balances, or smart contract storage slots a block will touch.

Because of that uncertainty, a lot of work has to be done step by step, which limits how much can be processed in parallel. When the network is busy, this contributes to congestion and higher fees.

Block-level access lists change this by mapping out ahead of time what each block is going to interact with. If the protocol knows which parts of the state a block will touch, it can safely process more operations in parallel.

The result should be:

• Faster performance under load

• More predictable transaction costs

• A base layer that can support much higher overall activity

Ethereum’s three big priorities: scale, UX, and a hardened L1

The Ethereum Foundation describes the next phase of development around three main priorities:

• Scaling: letting Ethereum handle far more activity without breaking security or decentralization. Glamsterdam is a key step here.

• Improving user experience: making wallets, apps, and transactions feel simpler and safer for everyday users, not just developers and power users.

• Hardening the L1: making the base chain more robust as more and more is built on top of it.

This “smaller but stronger base layer” idea is central to Ethereum’s future, and it’s explored in more detail in why Ethereum’s ‘smaller ship’ plan is shaking up its future.

Why Layer 2s and blobs matter so much

Ethereum’s long-term scaling strategy leans heavily on Layer 2 (L2) networks like Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base. These are separate chains that process transactions faster and cheaper, then periodically send proofs back to Ethereum.

Ethereum remains the security anchor underneath. Even if most transactions happen on L2s, the guarantees ultimately come from the main chain.

Blobs are a key part of making this work. Before blobs, L2s had to store their data permanently on Ethereum, which was expensive. Blobs provide a cheaper, temporary way for L2s to post the data Ethereum needs to verify what happened, without keeping it forever.

That’s a big reason L2 transaction fees have dropped over time: they can now use blob space instead of competing directly with regular transactions for permanent storage.

Hegotá: the next step after Glamsterdam

After Glamsterdam, the next named upgrade on the roadmap is Hegotá, expected later in 2026. The full feature list isn’t finalized yet, but the direction is already clear:

• Further scaling improvements, especially for L2-heavy usage

• Better usability and smoother onboarding for new users

• Stronger core security and resilience at the base layer

In other words, Hegotá is less about a single headline feature and more about continuing the same themes: scale, UX, and security.

Future-proofing Ethereum: the quantum question

Beyond immediate scaling and UX issues, Ethereum also has to think about long-term risks. One of the biggest theoretical threats is quantum computing.

Some of the cryptography used by Ethereum today could one day be vulnerable to extremely powerful quantum computers. That doesn’t mean the threat is imminent, but if Ethereum is meant to last for decades, it can’t ignore the possibility.

Researchers in the Ethereum ecosystem, including Tomasz Stańczak from the Ethereum Foundation, have said there is already a clear quantum strategy in place. Specifications for quantum-resistant cryptography are being worked out, and engineers are working on how to implement them in practice.

This kind of planning shows that Ethereum isn’t just chasing short-term performance gains. It’s also trying to make sure the network can adapt to entirely new threat models in the future.

Is Ethereum falling behind, or evolving on purpose?

From the outside, it can sometimes look like Ethereum is moving slowly while newer chains ship fast, high-throughput systems. But Ethereum’s approach is more incremental: ship upgrades step by step, test them in production, and keep the base layer as secure and decentralized as possible.

Glamsterdam and Hegotá fit into that pattern. They don’t promise a single magic fix. Instead, they continue a long-term shift toward a world where:

• Most activity happens on efficient Layer 2s

• The base layer is smaller, simpler, and more robust

• Fees are more predictable and performance scales with demand

• The protocol is prepared for emerging risks like quantum computing

If the last few years were about laying the foundation—moving to proof of stake, introducing blobs, and stabilizing the L2 ecosystem—the next few may be about proving what Ethereum can become: not just bigger, but faster, easier to use, and more resilient over the long term.