Ethereum Pectra Upgrade: Key Changes Affecting the Staking Ecosystem and Layer-2 Scaling

Key Points

• Ethereum completed the Pectra upgrade on May 7th, with core changes including increasing the maximum effective balance of validators from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH, and doubling the blob data space to support Layer-2 network scalability.
• The merge of more than 11,000 validators has been completed, reducing the total number of active validators by about 16,000, but the total amount of ETH staked has remained stable, with the average amount of ETH staked per validator rising to about 32.4 ETH.
• The amount of blob data on Ethereum has increased from about 21,000 to about 28,000, but the usage demand of the Layer-2 network still does not meet the new target of 6 blobs per block.
• With the decrease in Layer-2 costs, trading volume continues to rise, and the blob transaction fees are currently close to zero. Future fee growth will depend on the increase in Rollup's demand for blob space.

Introduction

The Ethereum network successfully deployed the Pectra hard fork on May 7, bringing key updates that enhance the flexibility of the validator staking mechanism, optimize user experience, and support Layer-2 expansion. This upgrade implemented 11 EIP proposals and marks another important milestone following the launch of the beacon chain, continuing Ethereum's technical roadmap from The Merge (, Shapella, to Dencun.

This article provides an in-depth analysis of the impact of Pectra's initial launch, focusing on how the adjustment of Ethereum's maximum effective balance and the doubling of blob space affect the staking mechanism and the Layer-2 ecosystem, while also tracking the changes in related on-chain metrics.

![What impact does the Ethereum Pectra upgrade have on the ecosystem?])https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-c8cf2d7a06432dd6fa34044cfb899dd6(

Staking vs. validators

One of the main goals of the Pectra upgrade is to optimize the validator operation process and increase the flexibility of PoS participation. The implementation of EIP-7251 significantly increased the maximum effective stake for validators from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH, which had a profound impact on the economic structure of the network. Stakers can now add funds to existing validators, or merge multiple validators into one, making compounding more efficient.

![What impact does the Ethereum Pectra upgrade have on the ecosystem?])https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-a70f2ce072c8f68cf67ae4aa9226ff55(

Maximum Effective Balance Enhancement Mechanism

The validator merge process specifically includes:

• Update the withdrawal voucher to type 0x02, indicating support for merge operations.
• Select the source validator ) to be received by the merged party ( and the target validator ) recipient (
• Submit a merge request, after which the source validator enters an exit queue that handles both ) ( active exit and merge operations
• When the source validator reaches the withdrawal slot, it exits from the active set, and the effective balance is transferred to the target validator.

This mechanism significantly enhances the capital efficiency of PoS systems, allowing large stakers to participate in the network with fewer nodes while reducing hardware and maintenance costs.

Since the Pectra upgrade until May 25, a total of 11,150 validators have completed the merge, transferring a total of 359,146 Ether.

![What impact does the Ethereum Pectra upgrade have on the ecosystem?])https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-014f0f84ba41d3a266107607c842b62f(

Impact on the staking economy

Due to the impact of the merge and exits, the total number of active validators has decreased by a net of 16,344. This change may be partially attributed to the simplified validator exit process of EIP-7002. Subsequently, the number of active validators began to decouple from the total amount of staked ETH, with an increasing amount of staked assets concentrated among a few high-balance validators.

This centralization not only enhances the capital efficiency of stakers but also helps to alleviate network load and peer-to-peer communication pressure, which is a key advantage for systems with a large number of validators.

Currently, the average stake of each validator has slightly increased from about 32 ETH to 32.4 ETH, but most validators still have a stake balance of less than 128 ETH. As more node operators merge their stakes to increase returns, this average is expected to continue growing, and the distribution structure of validator stakes will gradually change.

! [What is the impact on the ecosystem after the Ethereum Pectra upgrade?] ])https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-a033286caa2afe9c4e382fc66daf839f(

Blob scaling and Layer-2 development

Blob throughput doubled

Another core goal of Pectra is to enhance Layer-2 extensibility with EIP-7691. This improvement increases the target number of blobs per block from 3 to 6 and the upper limit from 6 to 9, significantly increasing the availability of blob data. This enables the Layer-2 network to gain greater transaction capacity and lower data storage costs.

After the upgrade, the daily number of blobs uploaded by Rollup increased from about 21,300 to around 28,000), with an average of 4 blobs per block(. The blob space used also increased from approximately 2.7 GB to about 3.4 GB. From the hourly data perspective, 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 growing.

![What impact does the Ethereum Pectra upgrade have on the ecosystem?])https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-baa3a309f0309f766cee5d748e90cb5d(

However, blob fees remain extremely low as usage has not yet reached the target. The data shows that more than 40,000 blocks do not contain any blobs, while about 52,000 blocks contain 6 or more blobs, indicating that there is still room for expansion.

When the number of blobs submitted per block exceeds the target value, the blob fee market mechanism will be activated, increasing the cost of usage. In addition, EIP-7623 in Pectra optimizes data storage methods by raising calldata costs, further encouraging Rollups to use blobs as a more economical data availability solution.

Layer-2 ecosystem impact

The increase in Blob supply has directly reduced Rollup costs. The average blob fees have further decreased, making them more predictable and almost free for major Layer-2 projects. As a result, the total blob fees paid by Layer-2 have dropped to nearly zero ) around 4 gwei (. The decrease in costs provides a higher profit margin for Layer-2 while supporting the processing of more transactions.

Layer-2 networks such as Base and Optimism have seen a significant increase in throughput, with the number of transactions increasing from 8 million before the Pectra upgrade to 14 million after the upgrade. This trend is similar to when Dencun first introduced blobs in March 2024. If Ethereum wants to get more value from blob fees, Rollups need to further increase blob usage and gradually approach the new block limit.

![What impact does the Ethereum Pectra upgrade have on the ecosystem?])https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-6c6792d86aeb552eb5378cb0e7f6fbf7(

Conclusion

Pectra is an important step for Ethereum towards becoming a global settlement layer. Although it is not as attention-grabbing as previous upgrades, this feature-rich hard fork brings greater flexibility and efficiency to the staking ecosystem, making it more forward-looking and suitable for institutional participation, while laying the groundwork for scalability and user experience optimization.

Early data shows that the integration of validators and the use of blobs in Layer-2 are steadily increasing, but many expected economic changes and scalability effects will still take time to gradually manifest. Pectra may not have attracted much attention, but it is quietly paving the way for the next phase of adoption and growth for Ethereum.