Ethereum Pectra upgrade scheduled for mainnet on April 8

Ethereum developers have announced that the highly anticipated Pectra upgrade will launch on April 8.

The launch date was disclosed on February 13 during the All Core Developers Execution (ACDE) Call #205. According to Tim Beiko, Ethereum Foundation Protocol Support Lead, the Pectra upgrade will first go live on the Holesky testnet on February 24 and Sepolia on March 5. On April 8, the upgrade will be completed when Pectra is activated on Ethereum’s mainnet.

The increase of Ethereum’s blobspace from three to six blobs in each block is among the most important improvements in Pectra. By doing this, Layer 2 data availability will increase, further lowering costs and congestion. The upgrade will also include execution-layer enhancements aimed at improving network performance. By accelerating the rate at which Ethereum burns, Pectra will also reinforce Ethereum’s deflationary model.

The London hard fork was the first to implement Ethereum’s burn mechanism, which permanently removes a percentage of ETH transaction fees. However, ETH burning was slightly decreased by the Dencun upgrade’s addition of blobspace. Pectra’s decision to double the blobspace limit is anticipated to increase burned Ethereum. According to Justin Drake, an Ethereum researcher, the burn mechanisms can help Ethereum regain its position as  “ultra sound money.”

As previously reported by crypto.news, Pectra upgrade might have a positive impact on ETH price. However, investors are advised to remain cautiously optimistic. The price of ETH has fluctuated since falling below the psychological $3,000 mark. With waning market enthusiasm, ETH has been trading in the $2,695 range for the past week, failing to break through the $2,800 resistance. 

On-chain metrics show a different trend. In January, DefiLlama data shows that Ethereum’s total value locked reached its highest level since 2022. ETH could benefit from the rising on-chain activity. Ethereum ETFs continue to attract a lot of investor interest. According to data from SoSoValue, net inflows into ETH ETFs have reached $3.14 billion as of February 13. Furthermore, after Cboe BZX filed a 19b-4 with the SEC to allow staking for the 21Shares Core Ethereum ETF, Ethereum may experience a rise in demand.