Ethereum developers activated the Pectra hard fork on the mainnet at epoch 364032, around 10:05 UTC on 7 May 2025. The release, a combination of the Prague and Electra codebases, is the network’s largest update since Dencun in 2024. Pectra incorporates 11 Ethereum Improvement Proposals. Key changes include EIP-7702, which turns externally owned wallets into smart-contract wallets and allows users to pay gas in multiple tokens; EIP-7691, which doubles blob data capacity to six blobs per block and aims to cut Layer-2 fees by up to 50%; and EIP-7251, which raises the maximum validator stake to 2,048 ETH while retaining the 32 ETH minimum. Additional upgrades speed up validator deposits, introduce autocompounding rewards, and add on-chain storage of historical block hashes and BLS precompiles. To continue reading this as well as other DeFi and Web3 news, visit us at thedefiant.io