$ETH Pectra Update: Key Improvements

The Pectra update, activated on May 7, 2025, brings changes to both layers of Ethereum: execution (Prague) and consensus (Electra). Key innovations: 

• EIP-7702: allows regular wallets (EOA) to temporarily perform smart contract functions, simplifying interaction with decentralized applications and allowing fees to be paid with tokens such as USDC, instead of ETH. 

• EIP-7251: increases the maximum staking size for validators from 32 to 2048 ETH, promoting validator consolidation and enhancing network efficiency. 

• PeerDAS: implements a new data accessibility system that improves the scalability of Ethereum, particularly for Layer-2 solutions.

• Verkle Trees: a new data structure that reduces the amount of information stored by validators, improving data storage and verification efficiency. 

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📈 ETH Market Dynamics

After the implementation of Pectra, ETH showed significant growth: in May its price increased by 45%, exceeding the growth rates of Bitcoin (10.7%) and Solana (20.6%). This growth is associated with improvements in user experience and network scalability.