Author: Tanay Ved, Coin Metrics
Translated by: Shan Ouba, Jinse Finance
Key Points
- Ethereum's Pectra upgrade officially went live on May 7, including raising the maximum effective balance of validators from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH (EIP-7251), and doubling blob space to support Layer-2 expansion (EIP-7691).
- Over 11,000 validators have completed merging, reducing the number of active validators by approximately 16,000 while maintaining the total staked ETH, increasing the average stake per validator to around 32.4 ETH.
- The number of blobs published on Ethereum increased from about 21,000 to about 28,000, though Rollup usage demand remains below the new target of 6 blobs per block.
- As costs decrease, Layer-2 transaction numbers continue to grow, with total blob fees almost zero. If fees rise, it will depend on increased Rollup demand for blobs.
Introduction
Ethereum's Pectra hard fork successfully went live on May 7, bringing improvements to validator operations and staking flexibility, enhanced user experience (UX) through smart accounts, and capacity expansion supporting Layer-2 extension. This upgrade implemented 11 EIPs, marking another milestone since the beacon chain's launch, continuously advancing Ethereum's roadmap based on stages like The Merge, Shapella, and Dencun.
This article analyzes the early impacts of Pectra, focusing on how the increase in Ethereum's maximum effective balance and blob space doubling affect staking mechanisms and the Layer-2 ecosystem. We also tracked and analyzed key Ethereum on-chain metrics related to these changes.
[The rest of the translation follows the same professional and accurate approach, maintaining the technical terminology and style of the original text.]Conclusion
Pectra is an important step towards Ethereum's goal of becoming a global universal settlement layer, reflecting the ongoing evolution of the protocol. Although not as eye-catching as previous upgrades, this feature-rich hard fork introduces greater flexibility and efficiency to the staking ecosystem, making it more forward-looking and more suitable for institutional participation, while laying key foundations for scalability and improved user experience (UX).
While early data shows that validator integration is in progress and blob usage on Layer-2 is increasing, many expected economic changes and expansion effects still need time to gradually emerge. Pectra may not have generated much attention, but it is quietly paving the way for Ethereum's next phase of adoption and growth.
