Ethereum (ETH) has reached a key milestone in its next major network upgrade. The planned changes aim to improve Ethereum’s Layer 1 capacity and efficiency as network activity grows. The development comes as ETH retreats toward $2,500, highlighting the contrast between the network’s long-term technical progress and its short-term market weakness.

Ethereum developers successfully activated the Glamsterdam upgrade on the Sepolia testnet on Tuesday, testing and validating code changes – aimed at increasing the network’s ability to process more transactions – before a potential mainnet launch in the fourth quarter.

This milestone did not make huge headlines in the crypto market; in fact, ETH has corrected over 8% so far this week, trading around $2,500 on Friday.

ETH/USDT daily chart

But for people who follow ETH’s development closely, it is a meaningful step forward. Glamsterdam is the next major protocol upgrade after Fusaka (back on December 3, 2025) and advances the network’s Layer 1 scaling roadmap.