Ethereum’s ‘Hegota’ upgrade slated for late 2026 as devs accelerate roadmap

Tech Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Ethereum’s ‘Hegota’ upgrade slated for late 2026 as devs accelerate roadmap Hegota will follow “Glamsterdam,” Ethereum’s next major upgrade, which is currently expected to roll out in the first half of 2026. By Margaux Nijkerk | Edited by Nikhilesh De Dec 28, 2025, 3:00 p.m. What to know : Ethereum developers earlier this month agreed on the name and rough timing of the network’s second major upgrade scheduled for 2026, settling on “Hegota” as the next milestone in the blockchain’s development roadmap. Hegota will follow “Glamsterdam,” Ethereum’s next major upgrade, which is currently expected to roll out in the first half of 2026. The decision reflects a relatively new approach to Ethereum development, with core contributors aiming to ship network changes more frequently rather than bundling large numbers of upgrades into releases that happen roughly once a year. Ethereum developers earlier this month agreed on the name and rough timing of the network’s second major upgrade scheduled for 2026, settling on “Hegota” as the next milestone in the blockchain’s development roadmap. Hegota will follow “Glamsterdam,” Ethereum’s next major upgrade, which is currently expected to roll out in the first half of 2026. That sequencing places Hegota tentatively in the second half of the year, continuing a faster cadence of protocol upgrades than Ethereum has historically maintained. STORY CONTINUES BELOW Don't miss another story. Subscribe to the The Protocol Newsletter today . See all newsletters Sign me up By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . The decision reflects a relatively new approach to Ethereum development, with core contributors aiming to ship network changes more frequently rather than bundling large numbers of upgrades into releases that happen roughly once a year. That shift comes after developers faced criticism from parts of the Ethereum community earlier this year, with some users and builders arguing that protocol development was lagging behind the network’s rapid growth and increasing demands. Developers are expected to finalize the full scope of Glamsterdam at their next meeting in early January. As a result, no major headline changes — formally known as Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) — are expected to be announced for Hegota until at least February. Even so, early speculation has already begun around what the upgrade could include. One likely source of potential Hegota features is deferred work from Glamsterdam. In previous Ethereum upgrades, EIPs that failed to make it into a release due to time or complexity constraints were often pushed to the following upgrade, and developers expect a similar dynamic this time around. Initial discussions around Hegota have focused on Verkle Trees, a newer data structure designed to help Ethereum nodes store and verify large amounts of data more efficiently. If implemented, Verkle Trees could significantly reduce hardware requirements for node operators, improving decentralization by making it easier for more participants to run nodes. As with past upgrades, the name “Hegota” follows Ethereum’s convention of combining a Devcon host city with a star name. In this case, the name is derived from “Bogota,” the execution layer upgrade, and “Heze,” the consensus layer upgrade. “Fusaka shipped PeerDAS in addition to a myriad of minor features and Glamsterdam’s major features will include Block-level Access Lists and enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation. Now we begin outlining the subsequent upgrade: Hegota,” the Ethereum Foundation said in a recent blog post. Read more: Ethereum’s ‘Glamsterdam’ upgrade aims to fix MEV fairness Ethereum News hard fork Upgrade More For You State of the Blockchain 2025 By CoinDesk Research Dec 19, 2025 Commissioned by Input Output Group L1 tokens broadly underperformed in 2025 despite a backdrop of regulatory and institutional wins. Explore the key trends defining ten major blockchains below. What to know : 2025 was defined by a stark divergence: structural progress collided with stagnant price action. Institutional milestones were reached and TVL increased across most major ecosystems, yet the majority of large-cap Layer-1 tokens finished the year with negative or flat returns. This report analyzes the structural decoupling between network usage and token performance. We examine 10 major blockchain ecosystems, exploring protocol versus application revenues, key ecosystem narratives, mechanics driving institutional adoption, and the trends to watch as we head into 2026. View Full Report More For You The Protocol: Aave community split By Margaux Nijkerk | Edited by Stephen Alpher Dec 24, 2025 Ethereum’s Glamsterdam, Bitcoin and quantum computing, and new Eigenlayer governance proposal What to know : Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk's weekly wrap of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I’m Margaux Nijkerk, a reporter at CoinDesk. In this issue: Most important tokenholder rights debate’: Aave faces identity crisis Ethereum’s ‘Glamsterdam’ upgrade aims to fix MEV fairness Bitcoin isn’t under quantum threat yet, but upgrade could take 5-10 years Foundation behind restaking protocol EigenLayer plans bigger rewards for active users Read full story Latest Crypto News BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP and DOGE trade higher as precious metals rally keeps macro focus 3 hours ago Coinbase says three areas will dominate the crypto market in 2026 6 hours ago Price-action of dog memecoins dogecoin, shiba inu muted amid thin holiday liquidity 23 hours ago Bitcoin’s rebound fades as XRP slips to $1.86 even with ETF assets at $1.25B 23 hours ago State of Crypto: Year in review Dec 27, 2025 Bitcoin sinks below $87,000 as crypto assets slide, metals soar post-Xmas Dec 26, 2025 Top Stories Bitcoin sinks below $87,000 as crypto assets slide, metals soar post-Xmas Dec 26, 2025 Coinbase named a top three 2026 fintech pick at Clear Street Dec 26, 2025 Trust Wallet users lose $7 million to hacked Chrome extension Dec 26, 2025 Bitcoin’s $70,000 to $80,000 zone highlights gap in historical price support Dec 25, 2025 Uniswap's token burn, protocol fee proposal backed overwhelmingly by voters Dec 26, 2025 Bitcoin briefly trades at $24,000 on Binance’s USD1 pair in flash move Dec 25, 2025