Ethereum's Glamsterdam Hard Fork Ends the 21,000 Gas Flat Fee for New Addresses

Ethereum's Glamsterdam hard fork will end the flat 21,000 gas cost for basic ETH transfers to never-before-used addresses, instead adding 183,600 units of a new 'state gas' category to reflect the cost of creating and permanently storing new account data, while transfers to existing addresses remain at 21,000 gas. The Ethereum Foundation has warned wallet providers, block explorers, and fee calculators to update software that assumes 21,000 gas is both the minimum and maximum, as outdated tools may reject valid payments or underquote fees. The change will activate first on the Platåberget test network, then Sepolia and Hoodi, before reaching mainnet in the fourth quarter; regular users need not act immediately, but service providers must update gas estimation logic.