Ethereum’s Pectra network upgrade goes live today: What to expect

Ethereum's Pectra upgrade will bring smart accounts, higher staking limits and improved scalability through key EIPs, simplifying user experience and institutional staking.

Ethereum — the network that unleashed smart contracts on the world — moves on to the next chapter with today’s Pectra upgrade, but what does it really mean?

Pectra is scheduled to go live on Ethereum mainnet at block height 364032 — later today, May 7, 2025 at around am UTC. The three main Ethereum improvement proposals (EIPs) included are EIP-7702, EIP-7251 and EIP-7691.

EIP-7702 allows externally owned accounts to act as smart contracts and cover gas expenses (transaction fees) and payments in tokens that are not Ether (ETH). EIP-7251 increases the validator staking limit from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH, which makes operations for large stakers easier and simpler.

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