Author: Mark Dewolf
Translated by: Blockchain in Plain Language
After a 45% price drop in the first quarter, Ethereum (ETH) may be preparing for a revival. On May 7th, the highly anticipated Pectra upgrade is expected to pass the final test, paving the way for mainnet launch.
This network upgrade is formed by merging two improvement packages—Prague and Electra, collectively known as Pectra, which includes 9 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs). These changes aim to simplify the entry process for new retail traders while making the world's second-largest blockchain more attractive to institutions.
Pectra will raise the validator staking cap from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH, reducing the need to run multiple validator nodes. By simplifying the staking process, Ethereum's managers hope to achieve stronger liquidity locking and even facilitate capital flow for large investors.
If user experience (UX) is improved and large investors can participate more easily, on-chain activity is expected to increase significantly. The price trend of Ethereum after the Pectra upgrade will be a key indicator of the crypto market in the second quarter. Let's take a look at what's behind it.
01
What is the Ethereum Pectra Upgrade?
Pectra is an upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain aimed at improving staking efficiency, enhancing user experience, continuing to advance the Rollup-centric roadmap, and strengthening Ethereum's decentralization characteristics.
Before the merge, Prague focused on improvements to Ethereum's execution layer, while Electra concentrated on consensus layer upgrades.
The Pectra upgrade has been anticipated for months and now has an official launch date: May 7, 2025. If everything goes as planned, this will be the largest update in Ethereum's history.
Main Proposals of Pectra
As of March 2025, the Pectra upgrade includes the following nine EIPs:
EIP-2537: New precompile, providing 120+ security operations, higher than the existing BN254 precompile's 80-bit security.
EIP-2935: Preserving historical block hashes to support stateless clients.
EIP-6110: Providing validator deposits on-chain.
EIP-7002: New mechanism allowing validators to trigger withdrawals and exits through the execution layer withdrawal credentials.
EIP-7251: Raising Ethereum validator's maximum staking limit from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH.
EIP-7549: Providing additional data availability for Ethereum Layer 2 (L2).
EIP-7685: Framework allowing validator smart contracts to execute specific operations.
EIP-7702: Experience improvements for Externally Owned Account (EOA) users.
EIP-7742: Decoupling Blob counting between consensus and execution layers.
Among these, EIP-6110, EIP-7002, EIP-7251, EIP-7549, and EIP-7742 will be applied to Ethereum's consensus layer; while EIP-2537, EIP-2935, EIP-6110, EIP-7685, EIP-7002, EIP-7702, and EIP-7742 will change Ethereum's execution layer.
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