Ethereum Sets Pectra Mainnet Launch for May 7

Ethereum developers have set May 7 as the mainnet launch date for the Pectra upgrade, marking the most significant set of changes since the Dencun upgrade in March 2024.

Ethereum Developers Confirmed May 7 for Pectra Upgrade

During the “Consensus Layer Meeting 154” held on the evening of April 3, 2025, the Ethereum team set May 7, 2025, as the deployment date for Pectra Upgrade. The announcement came after Pectra was successfully tested on the Hoodi testnet without any issues.

The need for the Hoodi testnet arose because Pectra was scheduled to launch on two of Ethereum’s testnets—Holesky and Sepolia. Originally, the Ethereum developer team would roll out the mainnet by the end of this month. However, testing on Holesky did not go smoothly, leaving the testnet unable to finalize transaction confirmations for several days. The situation was no better in Sepolia, forcing the ETH team last week to pause all efforts to pinpoint the problem.

In contrast, the third test on Hoodi proceeded seamlessly, paving the way for the official deployment and preparing Pectra for its mainnet launch.

After completing the Pectra upgrade, Ethereum will enter Phase 2, called Fusaka, expected in 2026. The Fusaka upgrade will introduce the EVM Object Format (EOF) and PeerDAS while boosting Ethereum’s performance and security.

The price of the ETH (Ethereum) token has not shown much reaction following the news that Ethereum has set a deployment date for the Pectra upgrade.

About Pectra Upgrade

The Ethereum Pectra upgrade is one of the most significant updates to the Ethereum network since the Dencun upgrade in 2024. Combining the Prague (execution layer) and Electra (consensus layer) enhancements, Pectra aims to improve the blockchain’s scalability, efficiency, and user experience.

Pectra Upgrade introduces some key improvements. It enhances Ethereum wallets with smarter, more secure, and user-friendly features. Staking becomes smoother with reduced system latency and an increased limit from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH, allowing validators to stake more. Additionally, it boosts data storage by expanding blob space by 50%, making transactions faster and cheaper. Successfully tested on the Hoodi testnet, Pectra builds on Ethereum’s scalability and efficiency, paving the way for the Fusaka upgrade in 2026, though ETH prices have yet to react significantly.