Ethereum’s Q4 Fusaka Upgrade in Jeopardy as Devs Obsess Over 2026 Glamsterdam Vision

Ethereum’s much-anticipated Fusaka upgrade—slated for Q4 2025—faces delays as core developers pivot focus to the distant 2026 Glamsterdam roadmap. Priorities clash while the network groans under scalability pressures.

### Short-Term Fixes Take a Backseat

With Fusaka’s efficiency upgrades now sidelined, traders brace for another round of ‘ETH gas fee roulette.’ Meanwhile, devs debate sharding designs that won’t materialize for 18 months—classic blockchain time dilation.

### The VC Elephant in the Room

Speculation mounts that Glamsterdam’s buzzword-heavy pitch (‘quantum-resistant zk-SNARKs with NFT soulbinding’) aims to lure fresh institutional capital. Because nothing solves today’s congestion like tomorrow’s hypothetical solution.

As the roadmap war rages, one truth emerges: Ethereum moves at two speeds—breakneck for fundraising, glacial for shipping.

Why Fusaka upgrade remains priority

The EF executive stressed that hitting Fusaka’s target date is vital for maintaining Ethereum’s broader roadmap. He cautioned that the network could fail to deliver on its stated vision without tighter coordination.

He stated:

“As I have said many times, no amount of talking about Ethereum’s roadmap and vision matters if we cannot achieve coordination levels that consistently meet goals on schedule.”

Meanwhile, Stańczak expressed Optimism that the development teams would resolve the bottlenecks that have prompted some to propose shifting deadlines.

He said:

“Talented engineers are already working on the problems. We need broad agreement that timelines matter.”

Fusaka will introduce a range of technical enhancements through multiple ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs). These include Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS) to improve data distribution, adjustments to the transaction gas limit, and refinements to blob parameters. Collectively, these changes are expected to strengthen scalability and performance.

The push to finalize Fusaka follows rising pressure from the Ethereum community for faster upgrade rollouts. Many see the changes as critical for keeping Ethereum competitive in a rapidly evolving blockchain landscape.

Glamsterdam remains on the roadmap and is projected to arrive before the third quarter of 2026. For now, however, Stańczak maintains that the network’s immediate priority must be ensuring Fusaka’s smooth and timely launch.