Ethereum roundup: Glamsterdam nears its first public testnet as Aztec V5 goes live

Summary

Developers behind Ethereum's Glamsterdam network upgrade are working toward launching the first public test network in September, a milestone that follows the current round of internal developer networks aimed at a 2026 release.

The Aztec layer-2 network's Alpha V5 release went live, cutting both the time and cost required to prove private transactions in half, fixing serious problems that had surfaced in the prior V4 version, and bringing its first applications online.

A mandatory update to the Nethermind execution-layer client, version 1.39.2, upgraded its underlying .NET runtime to 10.0.10, folding in seventeen separate CVE security patches for node operators to apply.

The Base layer-2 introduced native account abstraction under EIP8130, which it says roughly halves the cost compared with existing ERC4337 smart accounts and is already running on its test network ahead of a wider rollout.