Ethereum Launches Pectra, Its Most Ambitious Update Yet

Ethereum has activated Pectra, its most comprehensive and ambitious update to date, via a hard fork that successfully executed at 6:05 a.m. ET and finalized 13 minutes later. This new version introduces 11 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), making it the most significant update since The Merge in 2020.

What Does Pectra Bring?

Pectra seeks to optimize staking, improve the user experience, enhance wallet capabilities, and boost overall network efficiency. Among its most notable EIPs is EIP-7702, proposed by Vitalik Buterin himself, which allows wallets to temporarily function as smart contracts. This opens the door to new features such as automatic payments, account recovery, and gas fees covered by third parties—bringing Ethereum closer to the account abstraction model.

Another key change is EIP-7251, which raises the maximum effective balance of validators from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH. This improvement reduces operational fragmentation, bandwidth requirements, and maintenance costs for large and institutional validators.

Background Prior to Launch

The activation of Pectra comes after months of rigorous testing. Initially, developers faced configuration issues, leading to the creation of Hoodi, a new test network designed specifically to validate Pectra’s changes prior to final deployment.

According to Preston Van Loon, core Ethereum developer and co-founder of Prysmatic Labs,“This is the most ambitious update to date. Its impact will be especially noticeable in layers 2 and 3, where users won’t even have to worry about wallets or gas fees.

Complete List of EIPs Included in Pectra

• EIP-7251: Increases the ETH limit per validator, improving operational efficiency.
• EIP-7702: Introduces smart contract functionality in wallets, proposed by Vitalik Buterin.
• EIP-7691: Improves blob performance, increasing the efficiency of rollups.
• EIP-2537: Optimizes cryptographic operations, benefiting privacy features.
• EIP-2935: Allows old block hashes to be stored on the blockchain.
• EIP-6110: Streamlines the activation process for new validators.
• EIP-7002: Allows staking withdrawals initiated directly by the validator.
• EIP-7549: Improves the operational efficiency of validators.
• EIP-7623: Increases calldata costs for data availability.
• EIP-7685: Standardizes communication between the execution and consensus layers.
• EIP-7840: Introduces base fees for blobs, stabilizing costs on layer 2.

The Price of ETH Rebounds

The arrival of Pectra coincides with a complicated context for Ethereum, whose network has lost ground to more agile blockchains in recent months. However, ETH showed a 3.17% rebound in the last 24 hours, trading at USD $1,828, with a weekly gain of 21%. Despite this momentum, the token is still 45% below its price at the beginning of the year, according to data from CoinMarketCap.