Ethereum developers have successfully activated the much-anticipated Pectra upgrade on the Hoodi testnet, marking a significant step towards its eventual deployment on the mainnet. The Pectra upgrade was activated on Hoodi on Wednesday, which could be the final test before its expected mainnet deployment in the second quarter of 2025. Hoodi, launched on March 17 as a dedicated testing platform, follows earlier attempts on the Holesky and Sepolia testnets that faced technical challenges. Holesky dealt with prolonged finality issues, while Sepolia experienced synchronization problems.
In just 30 minutes after activation, the Hoodi testnet successfully forked and finalized the Pectra upgrade, offering a more stable testing environment than its predecessors. Hoodi has now effectively replaced Holesky, which is scheduled for deprecation later this year. This testnet allows staking operators and Ethereum client teams to rigorously test all changes introduced by Pectra. These include major protocol upgrades such as EIP-7702, which improves wallet functionality through account abstraction; EIP-7251, which increases the maximum validator stake from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH; and EIP-7691, aimed at enhancing rollup scalability by increasing the maximum blob count. Ethereum core developers have indicated that if the Hoodi test proceeds smoothly, the Pectra upgrade could be rolled out on the mainnet within about 30 days, possibly by late April. However, there is also the possibility of delaying the deployment to May or June to give stakeholders more time for review and preparation.
The final testnet upgrade is almost here! Hoodi testnet upgrades to Pectra TODAY, March 26, 2025, at 07:37:12 UTC, epoch 2048. Last week, the Hoodi testnet went live, providing staking operators and infrastructure providers with a robust environment for testing. — everstake.eth 💙💛 (@eth_everstake) March 26, 2025
