Heads up, Ethereum enthusiasts! The network is gearing up for a significant upgrade called Pectra, designed to make things faster and staking more flexible. They’re kicking things off with a new testnet, playfully named Hoodi, launching this Monday. This step comes after a couple of earlier test runs, Holesky and Sepolia, hit a few bumps in the road technically.

If everything goes smoothly with testing, we could see Pectra go live on the main Ethereum network potentially as soon as April 25th.

Interestingly, the price of Ethereum, the second-biggest crypto out there, hasn’t reacted much to this upgrade news. Looking at the last 24 hours, ETH is only up a modest 0.5% and currently sits around $1,900, according to CoinGecko. Taking a wider view though, ETH has actually dipped by 13.3% over the past week, likely influenced by broader market pressures like the chatter around President Trump’s trade policies.

The Pectra upgrade is set to be the third major change for Ethereum since its big move to proof-of-stake with The Merge back in 2022. Pectra’s all about boosting Ethereum’s capacity and making it more efficient, while also giving stakers more freedom, especially as layer-2 networks need more storage. Plus, good news – it’s expected to bring down those pesky transaction fees.

Earlier tests of this upgrade haven’t been without hiccups. Holesky, in particular, saw a surge in invalid blocks. That’s why the developers are launching Hoodi on Monday, March 17th, hoping it’ll smooth out the wrinkles seen in the previous testnet.

Ethereum has been taking some flak in the wider crypto world, with other crypto communities teasing it for its slower pace of development and ETH’s less-than-stellar price performance. Over the last year, according to TradingView, Ethereum has lost a significant 52% of its market dominance. This has opened the door for other coins, like XRP, to really shine, gaining a whopping 258.98%.

But hey, slow and steady might win the race, at least that’s what the die-hard Ethereum believers would like everyone else to think!

Looking at the specifics, Pectra is aiming to let you pay those gas fees with a wider range of tokens, including stablecoins like USDC, which is a handy addition. It’s also bringing in third-party fee sponsorship, meaning someone else can cover your gas fees – a feature that’s becoming super important on those layer-2 scaling solutions.

Furthermore, for those staking enthusiasts, Ethereum validators are getting a big boost in staking capacity, jumping from 32 ETH all the way up to 2,048 ETH! This increase will also come with more flexibility in terms of when and how you can withdraw your staked Ethereum.

And that’s not all – Pectra is also setting the stage for social recovery. This is a cool feature that would let you use your trusted contacts to help you get back into your wallet if you ever forget your key or lose access.

So, it’s no wonder many are calling Pectra potentially the biggest upgrade for Ethereum since The Merge, and maybe even one of the biggest ever for the network!

Once Ethereum’s core developers are “feel confident” in how the testing is going, they’ll schedule the mainnet update at least 30 days after this Hoodi testnet. This means we could see Pectra officially launch as soon as April 25th.

Edited by Stacy Elliott.