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Ethereum developers have called off the Glamsterdam upgrade’s scheduled activation on the Hoodi testnet, which had been set for October 26, after auditing firm ChainSecurity identified 13 deployed smart contracts whose behavior could change under two proposed gas-charging rules, Cointribune reported. The decision was taken at the October 22 All Core Developers Execution meeting.
The upgrade had already run on Sepolia on October 6. Hoodi was to be the second and final dress rehearsal before a possible mainnet release, and News.bitcoin reported that the cancellation puts a tentative December mainnet window in doubt.
Also read: Ethereum Halts Glamsterdam Hoodi Testnet Over Gas Bugs
Key facts
- The October 26 Hoodi activation was postponed after developers reviewed findings tied to proposals EIP-8037 and EIP-8038.
- ChainSecurity flagged 13 deployed contracts as potentially affected; the firm has not publicly named them while responsible disclosure continues, according to News.bitcoin.
- No financial losses linked to the issue have been reported, and the changes are not active on the mainnet.
- Glamsterdam ran on Sepolia on October 6; that test saw blocks operating near a 200 million gas limit, versus roughly 60 million on mainnet, News.bitcoin reported.
- No replacement Hoodi date or confirmed mainnet launch schedule has been announced.
How a failed transaction could become permanent
The two proposals alter how the protocol calculates gas, the fee mechanism that sets how much computing work a transaction may perform. Under the proposed rules, a failed operation might return previously consumed gas to a transaction. For contracts built around current spending limits, that extra gas can be enough for the surrounding program to finish writing the failure to the chain, News.bitcoin reported — potentially disabling a retry path or erasing a user’s ability to claim funds. The contract’s code would not need to change for the problem to surface.
Cointribune described the trigger as a contract calling another program and running out of gas, in which an operation normally canceled could leave permanent effects or block a later attempt. The affected proposals change how Ethereum charges for operations related to on-chain data creation.
Also read: Quant Soars 59% in a Week While Bitcoin Gains 0.3%
AI agents widen the search
Researchers at Eth Labs and the Ethereum Foundation independently built AI agents to examine contracts that might depend on older gas rules. After discovering they were working along similar lines, the two groups opened a GitHub repository as a shared communication board for the automated systems, which scan large codebases, simulate behavior and flag at-risk contracts with an eye on indirect, second-order effects.
Derek Chiang of Eth Labs likened the arrangement to methods used by malicious agents during an incident at Hugging Face, adding that the same model is useful for good agents. He also acknowledged the problem surfaced very late, forcing an urgent response, and argued protocol designers should study the failures their updates could introduce much earlier. ChainSecurity, not the agents, found the risks that caused the postponement; the agents were brought in to broaden the hunt for other affected contracts.
The approach has been extended to EIP-8198, known as Quick Slots, which Cointribune reported is planned for the next upgrade, Hegota, and aims to shorten the time between blocks. A second coordination platform has been opened to study its consequences before development advances far. The agents carry limits: one can raise a false signal or misread a contract’s operation, so every alert must be reproduced and validated by human researchers. A study published in 2026 found such agents could detect and fix vulnerabilities, but also exploit them end to end.
Why it matters
Glamsterdam bundles changes meant to raise Ethereum’s processing capacity and make block validation more efficient, so slipping the final test window pushes a performance upgrade further out while developers weigh whether the new fee rules can coexist safely with contracts already running on older assumptions. Operators on Hoodi must still install updated execution and consensus software ahead of any rescheduled activation. For ordinary users, nothing changes on mainnet today.
What to watch
The next Hoodi test date now depends on the findings of the expanded contract analysis, and developers have not committed to a replacement schedule or a mainnet date. ChainSecurity’s full list of affected contracts will matter once disclosure widens.
This article is informational only and is not financial advice; cryptocurrency markets are volatile and uncertain.
Reported by cointribune.com.
Sources: Cointribune, News.bitcoin