Ethereum Sets Two Upgrades Per Year Starting 2026
The Ethereum Foundation is overhauling how the network evolves, introducing a more agile development structure and a predictable upgrade schedule for 2026.
At the center of this shift is a newly formed “Protocol” team, established in June 2025, designed to streamline coordination and reduce the risks tied to large, infrequent updates.
Starting in 2026, Ethereum will move to a biannual upgrade cycle – two major updates per year – replacing the slower and more fragmented approach of the past. The goal is to deliver smaller, more manageable improvements while giving developers, node operators, and ecosystem projects clearer timelines.
Scale, User Experience, and Security Lead 2026 Priorities
The Ethereum roadmap for 2026 revolves around three main pillars: scaling, usability, and base-layer resilience.
On scaling, developers aim to further integrate Layer 1 execution with expanded blob capacity to support rollups. A key milestone is pushing the gas limit toward 100 million and beyond, significantly increasing throughput and rollup data availability.
User experience improvements focus heavily on native account abstraction and smoother cross-chain interoperability. The objective is to simplify transaction flows, reduce fee complexity, and make Ethereum applications more intuitive for everyday users.
Security and resilience form the third pillar. Research into post-quantum cryptography is underway to prepare for future threats, while work continues on a zkEVM attester client to strengthen verification processes. The Foundation has also set a target of 128-bit provable security for zkEVM implementations by the end of 2026, raising the bar for zero-knowledge infrastructure across the ecosystem.
Glamsterdam and Hegotá Headline 2026 Upgrades
Two major network upgrades are planned for next year.
The first, Glamsterdam, expected in the first half of 2026, focuses on improving execution efficiency and addressing MEV dynamics. Central to this update is EIP-7732, which introduces Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation (ePBS). This aims to make block production fairer and more transparent by restructuring how blocks are built and proposed.
[readmore id=”169750″]Glamsterdam will also include EIP-7928, enabling Block-Level Access Lists. This change is designed to allow parallel transaction processing, improving performance under heavy network load. Additional proposals target gas repricing adjustments, contract size increases, a new PAY opcode, stable SSZ implementation, and a sparse blobpool to optimize data handling.
In the second half of 2026, the Hegotá upgrade will concentrate on state growth management and long-term node sustainability. It may also mark progress toward the implementation of Verkle Trees, a key step in reducing node storage requirements and improving efficiency.
Organizational Changes and Decentralized AI Vision
Beyond technical upgrades, the Ethereum Foundation has introduced a dedicated “Platform” team. This group will focus on improving coordination between Layer 1 and Layer 2 ecosystems and providing clearer implementation guidance to builders.
The Foundation is also exploring Ethereum’s role in decentralized AI. Plans are developing to position the network as a settlement layer for autonomous AI agents, signaling a broader ambition beyond financial applications.
With a structured release cadence, tighter security standards, and ambitious scaling targets, Ethereum’s 2026 roadmap represents one of the network’s most coordinated development phases to date.
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