Ethereum developers have officially scheduled the highly anticipated Pectra upgrade for April 8, 2025, on the Ethereum mainnet, with plans already brewing for the subsequent Fusaka upgrade.
The timeline announcement came during the All Core Developers Execution Call #205 on February 13, 2025, led by Tim Beiko from the Ethereum Foundation. While initial projections pointed to a March launch, developers opted for April to allow comprehensive testing.
Before the mainnet deployment, Pectra will undergo testing on two networks - Holesky testnet on February 24 and Sepolia testnet on March 5. Early testing results show promise, with Ethereum Foundation's Developer Operations Engineer Parithosh Jayanthi reporting near-perfect validator participation rates on Devnet 6.
The upgrade aims to enhance validator participation and boost network performance. The development team chose to proceed with a single-phase implementation rather than splitting it into two parts as previously considered.
Looking ahead, the Ethereum community has begun mapping out the Fusaka upgrade. Tim Beiko proposed finalizing Fusaka's scope by Pectra's launch date to maintain steady upgrade cycles. However, this suggestion met resistance from the Geth team, who viewed the timeline as too ambitious and recommended removing the EVM Object Format component.
To address these concerns, discussions are underway about extending the planning phase for Fusaka. This extension would give developers additional time to evaluate which Ethereum Improvement Proposals should be included in the upgrade.
These developments unfold amid organizational changes at the Ethereum Foundation, with co-founder Vitalik Buterin confirming internal restructuring to tackle governance challenges.
The market response to the Pectra announcement has been modest, with Ethereum's native token ETH showing a 1.17% increase since Friday, trading at $2,709.