Ethereum targets Q1 2025 for Pectra upgrade rollout, following Dencun

Ethereum core developers discussed that they aim to ship the Pectra upgrade by the first quarter of 2025.

Pectra represents the next major update for Ethereum, succeeding the Dencun upgrade, which was effectively implemented in March 2023.

The upgrade is expected to include EIP-7251, or “increase max effective balance,” into Pectra. This change will allow individual validators to stake more than 32 ETH, with a maximum of 2,048 ETH — instead of the current maximum limit of 32 ETH. Raising the maximum effective validator balance would allow such operators to manage fewer but higher-stake validators, potentially reducing complexity.

The developers have also considered incorporating the Ethereum Virtual Machine Object Format (EOF), comprising about 11 improvement proposals that enhance the EVM code on both Layer 1 and Layer 2 levels. They also discussed replacing the account abstraction EIP-3074 with a new proposal, EIP-7702, proposed by Vitalik Buterin.

EIP-7702 will bring a novel transaction type that enables Ethereum account addresses to temporarily function as smart contract wallets during a transaction, with their original state restored afterward.

The article has been updated for clarity.