After some back-and-forth, Ethereum’s next big upgrade, Pectra, finally has an official launch date. It’s now set to go live on the mainnet on May 7, 2025, just a week later than originally planned.
The confirmation came during Ethereum’s core developer meeting on April 3, where developer Alex Stokes said, “We’ll go ahead and lock in May 7 for Pectra on mainnet.”
Why the Delay?
Originally, the team was aiming for April 30, but with a few technical hiccups during test runs, they decided it was better to give themselves a little more breathing room. Final client software updates will be out by April 21, and a detailed blog post explaining everything will drop on April 23 to help users prepare.
What’s Coming in Pectra?
This upgrade includes 11 proposals (EIPs) focused on making Ethereum faster, smoother, and more practical—especially for stakers and developers. Here are a few key changes:
🔸 Bigger Staking Limit (EIP-7251)
Right now, each validator can only stake 32 ETH, but after the upgrade, that limit jumps to 2,048 ETH. This helps big players or staking platforms run fewer validator nodes while managing more ETH—way more efficient.
🔸 Faster Deposits (EIP-6110)
Today, depositing ETH to become a validator takes about 9 hours to process. After Pectra, that wait drops to just 13 minutes. A big improvement for anyone joining the staking system.
🔸 More Control for Validators (EIP-7002)
Validators will now be able to trigger withdrawals more directly, giving them better control over their staked ETH.
🔸 Smarter Wallets with Account Abstraction (EIP-7702)
This change is a step toward making Ethereum wallets act more like smart contracts. It means users could soon do things like batch multiple transactions together, have someone else pay gas fees, or recover their wallet using new tools like passkeys.
🔸 Improved Scalability (EIPs 7691 & 7623)
These upgrades will help Ethereum handle more data (“blobs”) and keep things running smoothly, especially as usage grows.
Bumps on the Road
Getting here wasn’t totally smooth. Pectra had problems on two testnets—Holesky and Sepolia—which couldn’t finalize transactions correctly. But finally, it all came together on the Hoodi testnet on March 26, which marked the green light for the mainnet rollout.
Meanwhile, ETH’s Price Struggles
While the upgrade is good news for the network, Ethereum’s price hasn’t been too cheerful. Over the past week, ETH dropped 4.8%, and over the last month, it’s down 17.1%, according to data from BeInCrypto. At the moment, ETH is hovering around $1,822, with a small daily gain of 0.8%.
Historically, major Ethereum upgrades have had mixed effects on price. For example, when Ethereum switched to Proof-of-Stake during The Merge in 2022, prices spiked briefly but then pulled back. So while the tech keeps improving, market sentiment still depends on broader factors like global economics and investor mood.
