Curve Finance says Ethereum's upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade could give complex DeFi transactions more reliable access to blockspace. The protocol's mainnet checks found a leveraged borrow consumes nearly fifteen times the gas of a direct stablecoin swap. Curve also warns the upgrade reprices some state operations, so not every transaction gets cheaper.
Leveraged trades use far more gas than simple swaps
Curve Finance, the DeFi protocol behind the crvUSD stablecoin, told crypto.news that Glamsterdam's value should be measured by how transactions perform during congestion rather than by the block gas limit alone. In comments shared with the outlet, the team pointed to transaction inclusion times and actual user fees during demand spikes as the real tests of whether added capacity helps.
According to Curve's mainnet checks, a leveraged borrowing transaction consumed roughly 1.84 million gas, compared with 125,000 gas for a direct stablecoin swap — about 14.7 times as much. For transactions that combine borrowing with a collateral purchase, congestion can affect several parts of the same operation at once. As a result, more predictable blockspace access would particularly help users running complex transactions when network activity rises, Curve said.
Cheaper execution could also make smaller arbitrage trades worth completing, according to the protocol's team, which expects longer swap routes to become more economical and could improve the prices available through its pools.
Faster liquidations could support crvUSD stability
During sharp market moves, Curve said liquidators, oracle updates and borrowers compete for blockspace, though larger blocks will still face demand. For Curve's lending system, the expected benefit involves LLAMMA, its liquidation mechanism: cheaper and faster arbitrage should help LLAMMA track market prices more closely as collateral passes through its liquidation range.
By reducing delays in that process, the protocol expects the upgrade could limit losses tied to prices moving before transactions complete, which Curve linked to crvUSD's stability. According to Curve: "What we think should be watched most closely is execution under real load."
Gas repricing means some actions could cost more
Curve also warned that Glamsterdam reprices state operations, meaning some actions would need more gas, not less. Developers have already tested a 200 million gas limit on Ethereum's Sepolia testnet, up from roughly 60 million, though that test setting would not automatically become Ethereum mainnet's limit. On validation, Curve said Ethereum should preserve the ability to verify its ledger without asking permission — scaling would compromise that principle if added capacity made independent verification impractical. The Ethereum Foundation has not yet set mainnet activation dates for Glamsterdam.
Source: crypto.news
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