Key Takeaways
- Ethereum’s (ETH) Pectra upgrade went live on May 7, doubling blob usage.
- The ETH price reacted positively, increasing by over 10% since the upgrade.
- Polygon and Avail co-founder Anurag Arjun discusses its effects with CCN.
Pectra, Ethereum’s first significant upgrade since Dencun went live on May 7. It introduced 11 new Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), the highest number in a single upgrade.
Proponents hope the upgrade will revive interest in Ethereum, while detractors believe it is another failed experiment in the dying chain.
This article will analyze what Pectra brings and discuss it with Avail co-founder Anurag Arjun.
What is Pectra?
Pectra is Ethereum’s most significant upgrade since the merge. In the words of the Ethereum team , “The merge was for the protocol, while Pectra is for the people.”
More specifically, it aims to improve the user experience by implementing several upgrades:
- Fewer clicks: Absolving double signing by “approving and confirming” to reduce the number of clicks for each action.
- Smarter Wallets: Pectra allows normal wallets to batch transactions and skip approval pop-ups.
- Cheaper Transactions: Layer-2 scaling will improve with more blobs, especially during high traffic.
- ETH staking upgrade: The Validator cap has been raised from 32 to 2048 ETH.
Concluding with the words of the Ethereum team, “the merge changed how the protocol works, Pectra will change how it feels.
Avail Co-founder Discusses Petra
Avail is a modular blockchain that provides Data Availability to other blockchains, mainly focusing on rollups.
It is built by Polygon co-founder Anurag Arjun, who discussed the Pectra upgrade with CCN.
He said that besides the scalability, security, and UX improvements, Pectra will double the number of Blobs, though this will still not be sufficient. Sustained demand can spike fees exponentially, but this has not happened.
Arjun believes that Avail can play a significant role in the future, where rollups and data availability will become increasingly important.
Rollups will become the foundation of Web3 as verifiable ledgers, with data availability emerging as the core bottleneck as thousands of rollups—many settling beyond Ethereum—demand seamless interoperability and scale.
Finally, Arjun stated that Ethereum is committed to a rollup-centric future, and rollups thrive on data availability. More rollups will lead to more data availability demand, leading to more burn and, possibly, a deflationary Ethereum.
Ethereum Blob Fees
The Dencun Upgrade introduced Blobs, which are large packets of data included in Ethereum blocks, stored only for 18 days.
Hence, they do not occupy space permanently in the blockchain. Blobs hold 128kb of data , and multiple blobs can be included in a single block.
Blobs previously had a target of 3, and the Average Blob count per block has been at this target since November 2024.
The Pectra upgrade increased the Blob target to 6, and the Blob count per block has already increased above 3, though it has yet to reach the new target.
In the past 24 hours, the average Blobs has been around four.
In the past 30 days, blob fees have been the second-largest contributor to ETH burns, trailing only Decentralized Finance (DeFi).
The numbers show their increasing importance since they were behind DeFi, ETH, and seven stablecoin transfers in January.
The DeFi category contributed 908 ETH burned, Blob Fees burned 485 tokens, while ETH transfers burned 251.
Another interesting development is that the Ethereum supply has briefly become deflationary since the upgrade, while fees are increasing , noting an increase in network activity.
While there are some rumours that Pectra created a bug that is constantly burning all the remaining Ethereum supply, nothing has been substantiated yet.
The rumours likely stem from the fact that the Ultrasound.money page is updating the actual burned supply since the upgrade.
Successful Ethereum Upgrade
The Dencun Upgrade’s fee reduction played a large part in increasing Ethereum’s supply.
The increase in inflation cast doubt on Ethereum’s ability to function as money and created a pessimistic sentiment around it, contributing to its price decline.
The PEctra upgrade is a step in the right direction to remedy the situation, as is noticeable by the supply becoming deflationary again, albeit briefly.
Disclaimer:
The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be, nor should it be construed as, financial advice. We do not make any warranties regarding the completeness, reliability, or accuracy of this information. All investments involve risk, and past performance does not guarantee future results. We recommend consulting a financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
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