Ethereum’s (ETH) price has risen 12% after the completion of the highly anticipated Pectra Upgrade.
Ethereum is experiencing its biggest gain in a 24-hour period since 2021 as investors and traders react favorably to the upgrade, and amid a broader rally in the entire cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin’s (BTC) price has broken above $100,000 for the first time in three months.
Ethereum’s Pectra Upgrade is its biggest change since the “Merge” occurred in 2022, and represents a big hard fork in the digital asset’s protocol. The upgrade consolidates validator operations by raising the staking limit from 32 to 2,048 Ethereum tokens, advances wallet usability, and allows greater smart contract functionality.
Welcome Relief
The Pectra Upgrade and positive response is welcome news for Ethereum, which had fallen 40% this year. Analysts note that the Ethereum’s blockchain hasn’t grown since 2021. The Pectra Upgrade appears to have come at the right time with the entire crypto sector on an upswing and the 20 largest digital assets up over 10% in the past few trading days.
Pectra also begins the transition of Ethereum to the “EVM Object Format (EOF),” a new structure designed to make smart contracts more efficient. Ultimately, the upgrade should reinforce Ethereum’s role as a data availability layer and strengthen its scaling, say analysts.
Is ETH a Buy?
Most Wall Street analysts don’t offer price targets on Ethereum, so instead we’ll look at the cryptocurrency’s three-month performance. As one can see in the chart below, the price of ETH has decreased 29% over the last 12 weeks.
