Ether’s market capitalization surged 42% in five days following the successful launch of Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade on its mainnet.
On May 12, the company data tracker 8marketcap showed Ether (ETH) surpassing Coca-Cola and Alibaba, ranking as the world’s 39th-largest asset by market capitalization. ETH was trading at about $2,550 at publication time, with a market cap exceeding $308 billion.
By comparison, Coca-Cola stock trades at around $70, giving it a market cap of $303.5 billion. Alibaba stock trades at about $125, with a market capitalization of $303.7 billion.
ETH’s recent price action comes on the heels of a network upgrade that improved the storage of layer-2 scaling data, validator user experience and smart account wallet user experience features.
Ethereum implements Pectra upgrade on mainnet
Originally scheduled for March 2025, Pectra faced delays after technical challenges arose during testing.
On Feb. 24, the upgrade was deployed on Ethereum’s Holesky testnet. Following the deployment, the upgrade failed to finalize on the network, leading the developers to investigate and address the issues. On March 5, Pectra was rolled out to the Sepolia testnet, but developers encountered errors made worse by an attacker who caused the mining of empty blocks.
To further prepare for the deployment, Ethereum core developers created a new testnet called “Hoodi” before finally deploying the upgrade to the mainnet on May 7.
With the upgrade, externally owned accounts (EOAs) can act as smart contracts to cover gas fees and payments using tokens that are not ETH. In addition, validator staking limits were increased to 2,048 ETH from 32 ETH, simplifying operations for large stakers. The upgrade also increased the number of data blobs per block, allowing better scalability for layer-2 networks.
Since the upgrade, ETH’s price has escalated. On May 7, Ether traded at about $1,786, according to CoinGecko. On May 12, Ether went as high as $2,550, representing a 42% increase in value.
Related: Vitalik Buterin outlines vision as Ethereum ecosystem addresses hit new high
Security professionals warn of risks post Pectra upgrade
Still, the upgrade introduced security risks. Post upgrade, cybersecurity experts have warned that attackers could exploit a new transaction type to control EOAs without users signing onchain transactions.
Solidity smart contract auditor Arda Usman previously cautioned in comments to Cointelegraph that these vulnerabilities may allow attackers to drain funds through offchain signed messages.
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