Ethereum’s Pectra Upgrade Unlikely to Boost Price, Says Expert

Scheduled for May 7, the Pectra hard fork on the Ethereum network is unlikely to lead to a significant rise in the cryptocurrency’s value. This was stated by Edward Chen, co-founder of Parataxis Capital, in an interview with Bloomberg.

The much-anticipated update will enhance the network’s efficiency and utility, the expert noted. However, Ethereum needs to find incentives for further adoption, as well as reasons for investors to hold onto their coins, he added.

The previous major upgrade, Dencun, was activated by developers in April 2024. 

Pectra includes a series of improvements aimed at increasing the network’s convenience and efficiency. One significant innovation is the addition of smart contract functionality to wallets, simplifying their use and recovery.

Among other options is the doubling of BLOB object capacity, which will benefit L2 solutions.

“These are the kinds of small issues that need to be addressed. By turning a wallet into a smart contract, we open up a lot of really cool things. […] It’s an opportunity to make Web3 more like Web2,” commented Vivek Raman, co-founder of Etherealize.

According to Coinglass, in the first quarter, Ethereum’s price fell by 45%, continuing its decline in April. Bitcoin’s quotes lost about 12% in the first three months of the year but have since begun to recover.

For the second half of the year (September-October), the Ethereum team has planned the next hard fork named Fusaka. In February, developers discussed accelerating network updates but concluded that they require at least six months.

CryptoQuant has noted ETH holders’ confidence in the asset’s growth in the short term.