Ethereum has officially launched its highly awaited Pectra upgrade on the Sepolia testnet, a significant milestone leading up to its mainnet deployment.
The upgrade was successfully activated at 7:29 am UTC on March 5, achieving a perfect proposal rate, as reported by Ethereum core developer Terence.
This activation represents the second phase of Pectra’s testnet trials, following its initial rollout on the Holesky testnet on February 24.
Holesky Testnet Encounters Issues with Deposit Contract
The deployment of the Holesky testnet faced unforeseen complications due to inaccuracies in deposit contract addresses within execution clients, resulting in chain splits and delays in achieving finality.
Nevertheless, Ethereum developers responded swiftly to rectifying the problem, stabilizing the network to ensure that the Sepolia deployment continued as intended.
The Pectra upgrade encompasses 11 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) aimed at enhancing the scalability, security, and usability of the network.
This upgrade integrates the “Prague” changes in the execution layer along with “Electra” updates in the consensus layer to boost overall network efficiency.
Key enhancements include EIP-7702, which improves wallet user experience and account abstraction; EIP-7251, which raises the validator stake limit from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH; and EIP-7691, which increases the maximum blob count to better support rollup scalability.
Sepolia just finalized with a perfect proposal rate https://t.co/THU1zn1znm pic.twitter.com/wayGk0cHpt
— terence (@terencechain) March 5, 2025
The Ethereum developer community is poised to confirm the mainnet activation date during the upcoming All Core Developers (ACD) call scheduled for Thursday.
If all goes according to plan, the mainnet launch for Pectra is anticipated to take place in early April.
This upgrade follows Ethereum’s Dencun hard fork in March 2024, which significantly reduced transaction fees on Layer 2.
With Pectra, Ethereum continues to strive for enhanced efficiency and scalability, solidifying its status as a leading blockchain network.
Ethereum’s Exchange Supply Reaches Historical Low
In related news, an important on-chain metric supporting a bullish outlook for Ethereum is its declining exchange supply, which has now dropped to just 6.38% of the total supply on centralized exchanges, the lowest level recorded since the network’s inception.
This downward trend indicates that investors are transferring ETH into cold storage, suggesting a long-term holding strategy rather than immediate selling.
Last month, Ethereum faced an unprecedented wave of short selling, with futures contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) reaching a record high of 11,341.
The increase in bearish positions, which surged over 40% within a week and 500% since the previous November, reflects growing skepticism about Ethereum’s short-term prospects.
Additionally, Ethereum’s transaction fees have dropped to their lowest average since late August, now sitting at just $0.41 per transfer.
This significant reduction is in stark contrast to the $15.21 peak observed in the past two years, suggesting a potentially positive long-term sentiment for Ethereum’s price performance.
Historically, declining transaction fees indicate reduced network congestion, highlighting fewer users competing to process transactions, which is a healthy indicator for the network’s long-term growth.
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