The second-biggest cryptocurrency, Ethereum, launched its first Pectra testnet. It is the successor to the previous upgrade, Dencun. This is a huge milestone for the blockchain and will eventually benefit the Ethereum price. Undoubtedly, this is going to be another bullrun for the cryptocurrency. Crypto price to rebound.
For more about the history of price and all major upgrades, you can check here. Is this going to be one of the biggest turning points in Ethereum’s history?
How is Pectra going to affect Ethereum?
Pectra is combining two big updates similar to the Dencun upgrade. The first one is Prague (execution layer or EL) and Electra (consensus layer or CL). Hence, it gives many new Ethereum Improvement Proposals or EIP. EIP is the formal process by which changes are proposed, discussed, and implemented on the Ethereum blockchain.
Pectra is coming to Ethereum testnets 🌃
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
— timbeiko.eth (@TimBeiko) February 14, 2025
However, right after the Dencun upgrade, developers started to discuss what is next. Two major themes were Account abstraction (AA) and validator and staking improvements. EIP-7702 introduces AA, allowing externally owned accounts (EOAs) to be extended to smart contract addresses. EIP 6110, 7002, and 7251 improve user experience (UX) and remove delays between deposits EL and CL.
One of the most important EIPs was 7691, which was called “Blob Throughput Increase”. It enhanced Ethereum’s scalability by increasing the number of data blobs per block. In addition, this gives L2 rollups scaling solutions that depend on Ethereum’s data capacity.
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Indeed, this will help with huge fees and long waiting times to finalize transactions. Also, UX change gonna be more user-friendly to retail investors. All this will ease the use of Ethereum blockchain and will also help developers to make more efficient apps. The main goal is to strengthen security and boost scalability without compromising decentralization.
Furthermore, there are three different testnets that, in a way, are going to prepare for Pectra’s main upgrade.
Holesky, Sepolia, and Hoodi
Respectively, all of them are responsible for different roles.
Holesky testnet was launched in September 2023, and its purpose is validating and staking providers. It serves as a playground for testing staking mechanisms and infrastructure development.
On the other hand, Sepolia is focused on giving better tooling and application for developers. It provides a better environment for experimenting with decentralized applications (dApps). It was launched on March 5, 2025.
Hoodi testnet was launched recently on March 17, 2025. Hoodi, in a way, serves the same purpose as Holesky, but it is a better version and follows Holesky. It will take the role of Holesky with a lot more upgrades and is the final testnet before launching Pectra upgrade.
The new testnet Hoodi is live! The testnet is aimed at being a stable location for staking operators and infra providers to test on.
Holesky Validators and Staking providers (deprecated)
Sepolia: App and tool dev
Hoodi: Validators and Staking providershttps://t.co/ftLR2BiJsj— parithosh | 🐼👉👈🐼 (@parithosh_j) March 19, 2025
Both institutional and retail investors believe this will be the ground for the next Ethereum bullrun. Not only for Ethereum, but crypto price for many L2 and all projects built on the Ethereum blockchain will benefit from this.
What is next?
There is already discussion on what is going to be the next step. Some speculate that the name of the next upgrade is going to be Osaka. It will focus on Verkle Trees, state management, and preparing for full Danksharding. This is the vision of Vitalik’s long-term plan for secure, decentralized, and scalable blockchain.
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