Ethereum’s Glamsterdam testnet hits setback – Why Solana remains ahead
Will Ethereum lags behind Solana as the latter drives 75x more usage?
Ethereum’s [ETH] main upgrade agenda in 2026 has hit a hiccup. The much-awaited Glamsterdam upgrade, initially scheduled to go live on the Hoodi testnet on the 26th of October, has been cancelled.
According to security firm Chain Security, the Hoodi testnet was paused after they identified security flaws that have already impacted 13 projects and counting.
We already found 13 real-world examples and are in responsible disclosure with the affected projects. Please check your contracts as soon as possible, as the EF is determining how many contracts are impacted in which way.
The flaw would make it impossible to retry cancelled transactions. It would also make it easier for attackers to compromise a smart contract with little gas (fee paid to use a network).
Glamsterdam upgrade seeks to scale Ethereum even further by increasing the block gas limit from 60 million to 200 million and allowing parallel transaction handling. Ideally, the upgrade would make Ethereum high-performance like newer chains such as Solana and Sui.
The upgrade had a smooth completion in the Sepolia Testnet in early October. This is the first low-risk setup for developers and validator operators to evaluate compatibility. The Hoodi Testnet, which has been paused, acts as the final staged environment before pushing the upgrade to Ethereum mainnet (live network).
So the security flaw was a great catch before it reached the mainnet. That said, Solana achieved 85x faster transaction finality, further increasing its gap with Ethereum.
Ethereum vs. Solana: The gap keeps widening
After Solana’s Alpenglow, it is now 57x faster than Ethereum and has 275x more capacity. It’s the capacity bandwidth that Ethereum is trying to resolve by increasing the block gas limit from 60 million to 200 million.
On transaction finality, it takes Ethereum over 12 minutes to finalize irreversible transactions. For Solana, it now takes 150-200 microseconds, translating to 3,800x faster than Ethereum.
Collectively, this has allowed Solana to attract 75x more usage, and that’s the gap Ethereum wants to close. In fact, Solana also announced Alpenglow adaptations to usher in its post-quantum plan called Quantumglow.
Despite the Glamsterdam testnet hiccup, Ethereum is reportedly planning for 4x faster finality. That would mean bringing finality from over 12 minutes to about 3 minutes. It will still be slower compared to Solana’s 0.15 seconds.
The proposal, also known as Decoupled Consensus, seeks to offer a cleaner pathway to post-quantum signatures and is expected in early 2028.
Overall, Ethereum is still lagging Solana and needs to fast-track its upgrades as the gap keeps widening.
Final Summary
- Ethereum has cancelled the Hoodi testnet activation for Glamderstam upgrade due to security flaws.
- Ethereum lags behind Solana across finality, capacity, and more as the race for high-performance blockchain intensifies.
