On May 7, 2025, the Pectra update was successfully deployed on the Ethereum core network, the largest update since the release of Merge. The asset reacted with a slight drawdown.
The hard fork took place at epoch 364032. The deployment was successful. Recall that at the stage of carrying out the update in the test networks Sepolia and Holesky, the developers had problems, in particular with the finalization.
Pectra includes 11 Ethereum enhancement proposals (EIPs) aimed at making the network more efficient and accessible. These include increasing the maximum asset size at validator startup and giving wallets smart contract functionality.
We’ve covered this update in detail in a separate piece:
In a comment to Incrypted, 1inch co-founder Sergey Kunz described this hard fork as follows:
“The Pectra upgrade has two key goals that are highly relevant to the future of DeFi UX and scalability. First, it introduces “smart account” functionality at the EVM level, allowing EOAs (normal Ethereum addresses, not contracts) to delegate execution – paving the way for native gasless transactions and simplified user flows. Second, it improves Ethereum’s scalability by optimising blob transaction types for L2s, allowing builders to do more sophisticated and complex things by hiding complexity from end users.”
Ethereum (ETH) marked a rise in the run-up to the event before starting to fall. At the time of writing, it is trading at $1835:
Note that many experts believe that Pectra could have a negative impact on the network and the pricing of its coin. This is particularly Presto Research analyst Jaeheng Ha, who pointed out the rise of inflationary pressures.
As for the price, business angel and cryptocurrency analyst Jack Green has previously stated that Ethereum often rises some time after major upgrades.