Ethereum has deployed its most significant upgrade since the Merge—Pectra—incorporating 11 EIPs to enhance speed, cost-efficiency, staking, and usability .
Key changes include:
Account Abstraction (EIP‑7702): Gives non‑contract (EOA) wallets smart‑contract-like features—batching, fee-sponsorship, gas-payments in ERC‑20s, and better recovery options .
Blob Throughput Up: Blob slots doubled (target 6, max 9), slashing Layer‑2 rollup costs significantly .
Staking Limits Raised: Validator cap increased dramatically from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH per node, easing large‑scale staking .
Wallet UX Improvements: Reduced clicks, bundled transactions, and smart contract-wallet features for smoother onboarding .
Despite technical strides, ETH’s price has lagged behind Bitcoin and Solana YTD, down ~45 %, with Pectra unlikely to spark immediate price rebounds.
🔷 2. Onward in the Roadmap – Fusaka & Glamsterdam
Looking past Pectra:
Fusaka (2025): Focused on PeerDAS for efficient data‑availability and lightweight nodes/mobile UX .
Glamsterdam (2026): Planning for Verkle Trees, enabling stateless clients and vastly reducing node storage needs.
Other future upgrades include single-slot finality, proposer-builder separation, secret leader election, and full Danksharding—all designed for ultimate scalability.
🔷 3. Layer‑2 Scaling & Gas Fees Decline
Proto‑Danksharding (EIP‑4844): Introduced in the March 2024 Dencun upgrade, it’s now delivering lower fees for Layer‑2 rollups .
Gas Fees Are Low: Recent average transaction costs sit around $0.36–$0.41, the lowest in years—great for developers & DeFi activity.
🔷 4. Ecosystem & Institutional Adoption
DeFi Dominance: TVL across Ethereum is recovering, now topping $85 billion, with increasing Real‑World Asset tokenization .
Whale & Validator Trends: Large ETH holders are accumulating; staking now covers around 28 % of supply with over 34M ETH staked.