Ethereum ETF News: Glamsterdam Delay as ETHA Loses $198M

What is the latest Ethereum ETF news?

Two stories, one on the network and one in the funds. On October 22, the Ethereum Foundation said core developers had postponed Glamsterdam's activation on the Hoodi testnet, which had been set for October 26. The delay gives developers time to study how gas changes in the upgrade interact with contracts already on mainnet, after the auditing firm ChainSecurity showed that two of the proposals could leave some contracts with more or less gas than they expect, per CoinDesk. The Foundation set no new Hoodi date and no mainnet date, and said no action is needed from ETH holders.

In the funds, the selling has not let up. US spot Ether ETFs are net −$148.8 million for the week through Tuesday, and BlackRock's ETHA alone is −$198.0 million, while Fidelity's FETH took in +$44.7 million and Grayscale's ETH Mini +$4.5 million, per SoSoValue data. Category assets are about $14.18 billion, with cumulative net inflows down to $12.57 billion. The day-by-day table is in this week's Ethereum ETF flows.

What is Glamsterdam and why was it delayed?

Glamsterdam is Ethereum's next hard fork. Its two headline changes, per the Foundation's September testnet announcement, are enshrined proposer-builder separation (EIP-7732), which moves block building's auction into the protocol so proposers pick the highest-paying block without seeing its contents, and block-level access lists (EIP-7928), which tell nodes in advance which accounts a block touches so they can process transactions in parallel. Together they are meant to let the network raise its gas limit, now 60 million.

The upgrade went live on the Sepolia testnet on October 6, where validators began proposing 200 million-gas blocks, per CoinDesk. Hoodi was the last scheduled rehearsal before mainnet. The postponement also drops Hoodi's planned move to a 200 million gas limit. Repricing proposals EIP-8037 and EIP-8038 are the ones under review: ChainSecurity demonstrated how they could make some operations fail, but has not shown that a major production protocol is exploitable.

Does the Glamsterdam delay affect Ethereum ETFs?

Not mechanically. A spot Ether ETF holds ETH and tracks its price minus the fee; a protocol upgrade does not change the shares, the NAV calculation or the custody. Glamsterdam's case for holders was always indirect: more capacity, cheaper settlement and a fairer block auction, which supporters argue would make the chain more useful and ETH more in demand. A delay pushes that case out; it does not reverse it.

Where an upgrade does touch the funds is staking. Staked products such as BlackRock's ETHB, which stakes 70% to 95% of its ether, depend on their validator operators running the right client software at each fork, and the Foundation told operators to check that both their execution and consensus clients reflect the postponement. Our Ethereum staking ETF update covers how those funds hold a liquid sleeve so redemptions do not wait on the network's queues.

The flow pattern is older than the delay. ETHA carried 87% of October's −$1.18 billion through October 22, as covered in Ethereum ETF outflows, and this week repeats the split: one large fund redeeming while FETH and the Grayscale Mini take small inflows. That reads as a few big ETHA holders cutting exposure, not a vote on Glamsterdam.

What it means for investors

Watch two things. The first is a new Hoodi date: the Foundation will announce one once the gas questions are settled, and a mainnet date can only follow a clean Hoodi fork. The second is whether money keeps leaving ETHA or starts leaving FETH too. Pre-Tick's flows table shows each fund daily; as long as FETH stays positive while ETHA redeems, the outflow is one fund's holders, not the category's.

For anyone choosing between the two largest funds, both charge 0.25%, so ETHA vs FETH comes down to size and trading depth. The open is the other cost, because ether trades all night while the funds are shut. Across 60 sessions from August 5 to October 28, Pre-Tick's pre-market estimate landed a median 0.087% from ETHA's official open and 0.058% from FETH's, against about 1.2% for the prior close, and within ±0.5% in 97% and 98% of sessions, per /accuracy. Leveraged holders in ETHU should check leverage decay before holding through a volatile week. This is market analysis, not investment advice.