Ethereum Activates Major ‘Pectra’ Upgrade

By: coinpaper|2025/05/09 03:15:02

Ethereum Activates Major ‘Pectra’ Upgrade The Pectra upgrade - the largest upgrade to Ethereum in terms of offerings - activated on the main network at epoch 364,032. Pectra includes a series of enhancements aimed at making Ethereum more user-friendly and efficient. The massive upgrade contains 11 key EIPs. One major update is the addition of smart contract functionality to wallets, making them easier to use and recover. The implementation of the hardfork in the Sepolia (consensus level) and Holesky (execution level) testnet led to failures. In the former case, intrusion by an attacker caused additional difficulties. In Holesky, even after restoring the network's operability, it turned out to be impossible to test the functionality of the upgrade in terms of validator output. The developers decided to create a new long-term testnet to complete the validation of the hardfork. The testnet, called Hoodi, launched on March 17, with the upgrade deployed in the same month. According to a statement from the Ethereum team, the main features introduced in the upgrade are active on the mainnet, including: wallets in the form of smart contracts; doubling the amount of data storage for scaling L2 networks; improving the user interface for validators. Developers will continue to monitor possible issues due to the hardfork activation over the next 24 hours. Ethereum price hits $2000 amid smart money activism Ethereum price indicates the best weekly dynamics among the top 10 cryptocurrencies. The coin's exchange rate grew by 8.5% during the week, exceeding $2000. The Pectra update implemented on May 7 was not a key driver of the price increase, accounts Nansen analyst Nicolai Sondergaard: "This is a long-term process, not an instantaneous driver." The expert noted the accumulation of "smart money" - by institutionalizers like Wintermute. According to Nansen, within a day, the firm stockpiled the second most capitalized cryptocurrency to profit from market making. Lookonchain experts recorded the withdrawal of 41,269 ETH ($75 million) from Binance and Kraken by London-based fund Abraxas Capital. The entry price was $1930.41 per coin. The unrealized profit on the trade reached $354,000. Despite the notable growth, ether is still 59% below its all-time high ($4878) and the ETH/BTC ratio is close to five-year lows. 65.5 million wallets (nearly half of the network) are at a loss, data from IntoTheBlock shows. Ethereum's rally coincided with the overall market upswing, with capitalization reaching $3.2 trillion. ENRICH your inbox with our best stories

The widespread adoption of on-chain financial applications still faces an invisible barrier: the lack of transaction order certainty. Under a single leader architecture, nodes can delay, censor, or even front-run user transactions, thus completely distorting the game among market makers, bidders, an...

Founder of Delphi Labs: My observations and feelings about the AI ecosystem in China in two weeks

Delphi Labs co-founded a deep observation of China's AI ecosystem: hardware manufacturing is quietly winning the global war at an astonishing speed, but the software sector is mired in an overvaluation bubble and the homogenization of founders.

AI Seating Chart Released | Rewire News Morning Brief

Musk and Ultraman are not above

Is the era of Embodied AI's "GPT Moment" Approaching? Axis Robotics Announces End of Testing, Set to Launch on Base Chain

Axis's answer is yes - provided that a thorough reshaping of the scale-up production of robotic data is required, and a redefinition of the deployment paradigm in the physical world.

Meta Layoff Explained: On the same day as laying off 700 people, they handed out $90 billion in retention bonuses to executives

The money saved from laying off 700 people is approximately equivalent to Meta's 1.5 days of AI infrastructure spending

Binance Cracks Down on Market Makers, a Long-overdue Trial

True accountability requires regulatory involvement, enforcement agencies, rather than allowing the exchange to act as its own judge.

Wall Street Collective Bearish on 2026, Will the Oil Crisis Trigger a Recession?

「There is no middle ground; the result will definitely be one of two extremes.」

Hollywood's AI Necromancy: Death Is No Longer the End of Labor

Post-Mortem Economics

a16z: DeFi Struggling to Support a True Financial Market

More important than throughput is the determinism and fairness of transaction execution.

Morning News | Bitmine launches institutional Ethereum staking platform MAVAN; Franklin Templeton launches tokenized ETF; Morgan Stanley to issue and sponsor Bitcoin ETF

Overview of Important Market Events on March 25

Kalshi early employees: Whoever controls the traffic controls the market

Robinhood can decide where tens of millions of contracts go with the flip of a switch, while the exchanges do all the hard work but cannot control their own fate.

Tether signs contracts with four major audits, Circle's compliance moat collapses, stock price plummets by 20%

USDT, with a market value of 184 billion dollars, is undergoing its first comprehensive inspection in history.

Is the era of Embodied AI's "GPT Moment" Approaching? Axis Robotics Announces End of Testing, Set to Launch on Base Chain

Axis's answer is yes - provided that a thorough reshaping of the scale-up production of robotic data is required, and a redefinition of the deployment paradigm in the physical world.