Ethereum activates major Pectra upgrade: what's changed?

The Ethereum mainnet has successfully activated the large-scale Pectra upgrade — the biggest update in terms of the number of EIP proposals. It was implemented at epoch 364,032, significantly expanding blockchain capabilities and simplifying its usage.

What Changed After the Pectra Upgrade?

The Pectra update includes a series of improvements aimed at enhancing the convenience and efficiency of Ethereum. Overall, the upgrade features 11 key EIPs, including:

• the addition of smart contract functionality to crypto wallets, making them easier to use and recover;
• doubling the storage capacity for scaling L2 networks;
• improving the interface for validators, simplifying their work process.

Testing and Issues in Testnets

The hard fork implementation did not go smoothly in the test networks Sepolia (consensus layer) and Holesky (execution layer). In Sepolia, additional difficulties arose due to the intervention of a malicious actor, while in Holesky, even after network recovery, it was not possible to test the validator exit functionality.

To complete the functionality check of Pectra, developers decided to create a new long-term testnet called Hoodi. The network was launched on March 17, and the update was deployed within the same month.

Did the Upgrade Affect Ethereum's Price?

Despite the expectations of some analysts, the Pectra upgrade did not trigger a noticeable increase in Ethereum's price. As co-founder of Parataxis Capital Edward Chen predicted, the large-scale update did not «boost» the asset's value. Over the past 24 hours, the price of ETH increased by only 2.5%, while Bitcoin added 3% (according to CoinGecko).

What's Next? Fusaka Hard Fork Is on the Way

The next major Ethereum update, named Fusaka, is scheduled for the second half of 2025 (September-October). It has already been announced that the upcoming upgrade will exclude changes to the EVM codebase for implementing the Ethereum Object Format functionality.