Prysm released version 7.2.1 on October 5, adding the gas-limit schedule needed for validators to default to 200 million gas at Ethereum's upcoming Glamsterdam fork on Sepolia. The software change is live; the testnet activation is scheduled for October 6 at 13:53:36 UTC and had not occurred at this article's publication.
The official release notes set the new default from epoch 353,024. Operators can override it through proposer settings, the keymanager API or the suggested gas limit option. Existing custom settings therefore deserve attention: installing a release and following its default schedule are separate choices.
The previous Prysm 7.2.0 release supported the fork but retained a 60 million default unless validators configured a higher value themselves. The new release incorporates the missing network schedule rather than making an operator manually reproduce it.
CoinDesk reports that blocks proposed at the old setting would weaken the intended higher-capacity trial. Gas measures permitted computational work, so a larger limit is not a fixed promise about transaction counts, confirmation times or fees.
The Ethereum Foundation's deployment announcement covers Sepolia only. Hoodi and mainnet dates remain undecided. Operators need compatible execution and consensus clients, not just an updated validator configuration.
Prysm 7.2.1 also changes builder authentication fields in proposer settings files to hexadecimal values matching the keymanager API. Teams testing Gloas builders should review those fields when updating, rather than treating the release as a gas-limit-only patch.
The immediate milestone is preparation for the Sepolia rehearsal. Whether the network handles the intended capacity reliably is a result to observe after activation, not something established by publishing the software release.