Ethereum Pectra Upgrade: Enhanced Staking Flexibility and Accelerated Layer-2 Expansion

On May 7th, Ethereum successfully completed the Pectra upgrade, bringing significant improvements to the validator operations and staking mechanism, while providing stronger support for Layer-2 scalability by increasing blob space. This upgrade implemented 11 EIPs and marks another important milestone since the launch of the beacon chain, continuing the ongoing evolution of the Ethereum roadmap.

Stake Mechanism Optimization

One of the core changes in the Pectra upgrade is the increase of the maximum effective stake balance for validators from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH. This allows stakers to increase the stake for existing validators or consolidate multiple validators into one, thereby improving capital efficiency and achieving better compound returns.

Since the upgrade, 11,150 validators have completed the merge, totaling 359,146 ETH merged. This has led to a net decrease of 16,344 active validators, but the overall amount of staked ETH remains unchanged. The average stake per validator has slightly increased to about 32.4 ETH, and this number is expected to continue to grow as more node operators optimize their staking structures.

This change not only enhances the capital efficiency of stakers but also helps reduce network load and peer-to-peer communication pressure, laying the groundwork for the long-term stable operation of the system.

Blob Space Expansion and Layer-2 Development

The Pectra upgrade will also increase the target number of blobs per block from 3 to 6, and raise the upper limit from 6 to 9, significantly increasing the supply of blob space. This provides greater transaction capacity and lower data availability costs for Layer-2.

After the upgrade, the number of blobs uploaded daily by Rollup increased from approximately 21,300 to 28,000, and the blob space used increased from 2.7 GB to 3.4 GB. The average number of blobs per block is gradually approaching the new target value of 6, indicating that the demand for Layer-2 transactions is on the rise.

The increase in blob supply directly reduces Rollup costs. The average blob fee has further decreased, making it nearly free for major Layer-2 projects. This provides higher profit margins for Layer-2 while also being able to handle more transactions.

After the upgrade, the transaction volume of some Layer-2 solutions has significantly increased. For example, the daily transaction volume of Base and Optimism surged from 8 million to 14 million. This trend is similar to the situation when the Dencun upgrade first introduced blobs in March 2024.

Outlook

The upgrade of Pectra to the Ethereum staking ecosystem introduces greater flexibility and efficiency, making it more suitable for institutional participation, while laying the foundation for scalability and user experience optimization. Although early data shows that validator integration and Layer-2 blob usage rates are on the rise, many anticipated economic changes and scaling effects will still take time to gradually manifest.

The Pectra upgrade has not sparked widespread attention, but it is paving the way for the next phase of adoption and growth for Ethereum. As these changes begin to take effect, the Ethereum ecosystem is expected to usher in a more efficient, flexible, and scalable future.