Ethereum’s next major upgrade, Pectra, is set for activation in early May 2025, bringing changes aimed at boosting scalability, improving user experience, and enhancing validator efficiency, according to Nansen. 

Combining improvements to the execution and consensus layers, the upgrade builds on previous milestones, such as Shanghai and Dencun, according to Nansen analysis. 

Pectra doubles the blob data capacity per block from three to six, with a maximum of nine, allowing Layer-2 rollups to post more transaction data at lower costs.

At the same time, the gas cost for traditional calldata will increase, nudging developers toward blob usage to support Ethereum’s (ETH) long-term scalability path.

Streamlined functionality

Validator operations are also being streamlined. EIP-7251 raises the maximum stake per validator from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH, allowing larger stakers to consolidate. Deposits and exits are now fully handled on-chain, cutting activation time from 12 hours to just 13 minutes, and simplifying withdrawals via regular transactions.

From a usability standpoint, EIP-7702 introduces temporary smart contract functionality to externally owned accounts. This enables users to bundle actions, use custom signatures, or sponsor gas fees without converting wallets into smart contracts.

Additional upgrades include lower-cost BLS cryptography support, extended block history for light clients, and the first phase of the EVM Object Format for cleaner smart contract coding.

While not a radical overhaul, Pectra is expected to improve Layer-2 network performance, ease DeFi onboarding, and support more seamless interactions across dApps. Adoption will depend on wallet providers and developers, but the infrastructure changes are already in place.

Ethereum developers have confirmed a hard fork for the first week of May, with no action required from end users.