Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade will end the fixed 21,000-gas rule for basic ETH transfers

Ethereum’s next major upgrade, Glamsterdam, will change one of the network’s oldest assumptions: a basic ETH transfer will no longer always cost 21,000 gas. Under the proposal, transfers to existing accounts will still use 21,000 gas, but sending ETH to an address that has never appeared on Ethereum before will add 183,600 units of a new category called state gas. The change means wallet software, blockchain tracking services and fee calculators that treat 21,000 as both the minimum and maximum gas cost for an ETH transfer may return incorrect fee estimates or reject transactions that should be valid. Developers from the Ethereum Foundation said service providers should update their systems before Glamsterdam reaches mainnet. The upgrade is scheduled to activate on Thursday on Platåberget, a practice Ethereum network that uses worthless tokens for testing, before moving to Sepolia and Hoodi and later to mainnet. The warning is directed at infrastructure providers rather than ordinary users, and CoinDesk reported that no action is required this week for people simply sending ETH.