To prepare for the mainnet deployment, the Pectra upgrade has been scheduled for deployment on the Holesky testnet on February 24, followed by the Sepolia testnet on March 5.
Ethereum schedules Pectra upgrade deployment on Holesky and Sepolia testnets
Following the successful deployment of the Dencun upgrade on Ethereum with the important EIP-4844 proposal that significantly reduced network gas fees by tens of times in Q1/2024, Pectra is the next important step for ETH, aimed at improving speed, scalability, and user as well as developer experience.
Initially, Pectra was expected to be launched by the end of 2024, but was delayed due to the significantly expanded scope of the upgrade. Finally, Ethereum developers have "scheduled" the deployment of Pectra on the mainnet in March of this year. But before that, it needs to be tested on the testnet networks to ensure everything goes smoothly.
Unlike Dencun, the Pectra upgrade will be split into 2 parts with 2 separate names for deployment in 2 stages, in order to reduce the potential technical risks:
- Pectra - Part 1 (first half of 2025): Includes upgrades such as EIP-7251 (increasing staking limit) and EIP-7702 (an upgrade of EIP-3074 to improve user wallet experience), as well as improving the time required for validator deposits and withdrawals.
- Fusaka - Part 2 (expected in 2026): Integrates major technical improvements such as EVM Object Format (EOF) and PeerDAS, enhancing network performance and security.
Through Pectra, Ethereum will bring many features to improve the user experience, moving towards the vision of Account Abstraction and increasing the value of holding the ETH token.
As of today, Tim Beiko, the protocol support team lead at the Ethereum Foundation, has announced the deployment schedule on the testnet as a stepping stone towards the mainnet.
Pectra is coming to Ethereum testnets 🌃
— timbeiko.eth (@TimBeiko) February 14, 2025
On Feb 24th, at epoch 115968, the upgrade will go live on Holesky. Then, on Mar 5, at epoch 222464, it will activate on Sepolia.
Assuming both of these go smoothly, we'll then pick an epoch for mainnet activation. More info below 👇 pic.twitter.com/1o9iFbYVaR
Specifically, at epoch 115968 expected on February 24, Pectra will be deployed on the Holesky testnet. Then, on the Sepolia testnet at epoch 222464 on March 5.
The updates included in Pectra are:
Pectra introduces many, many EIPs to Ethereum, but you can distill most of to three important areas: augmenting Ethereum accounts, improving validator UX, and, last but not least, scaling the blobs .oO pic.twitter.com/iMtp5purno
— timbeiko.eth (@TimBeiko) February 14, 2025
If you are running an Ethereum node, you will need to update to the latest client version. Otherwise, ETH holders and other stakeholders do not need to take any action.
The price of ETH has not seen any significant movement in response to this news, still trading around $2,700.
ETH price movement in the 7-day frame, screenshot from CoinGecko at 01:40 PM on February 15, 2025
Compiled by Coin68
