Ethereum’s market cap has increased in value by 42%. Ethereum’s market cap is now worth $308 billion, more than big companies like Coca-Cola ($303.5 billion) and Alibaba ($303.7 billion), making it the 39th largest asset globally, according to 8MarketCap.
The Pectra upgrade, which launched on May 7, led this hike. Ethereum’s price has increased from $1,786 to $2,550. It has made Ethereum faster, easier to use, and better at handling multiple transactions. The improvements made it more powerful, as it suppressed the giants like Coca-Cola and Alibaba.
The people and crypto enthusiasts were more excited as the value of ETH increased. However, the upgrade had problems. As per the reports, it was planned for March 2025, but it got delayed. When developers tried it out on the Holesky test network on February 24, it didn’t function correctly, so they had to fix it before moving forward.
More problems came up on the Sepolia test network on March 5, worsened by someone intentionally creating useless blocks to mess with the system. These issues forced developers to fix things before the final launch.
To resolve the issues with the Pectra upgrade, Ethereum developers made a new test network called Hoodi to test everything before launching it on the main Ethereum network.
The upgrade, which went live on May 7, 2025, does a few key things: it makes it easier to store data for faster transactions on layer-2 networks, increases the amount of ETH validators can stake from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH, and lets regular user accounts (EOAs) work like smart contracts.
This update has let its users pay transaction fees with any tokens other than ETH, which has made things more flexible. The Pectra upgrade has boosted Ether’s price, but it also brings some security risks. Experts, like Solidity auditor Arda Usman, warn that a new way of handling transactions could let hackers take control of user accounts (EOAs) without needing on-chain approvals, possibly stealing money through off-chain messages.
Despite these worries, the improvements from the upgrade, such as handling more data per block for faster layer-2 networks, excite people because they enhance Ethereum’s performance. The rapid rise of ETH indicates that Ethereum is becoming a significant player in the field of decentralized finance (DeFi).
Still, people involved are urging everyone to stay careful and fix these security issues to keep the network safe as Ethereum keeps improving.
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