Breaking: Ethereum Pectra Upgrade Now Live on Holesky Testnet

The long-awaited Pectra upgrade on the Ethereum network is now live on the Holesky testnet. The upgrade, designed to enhance the protocol’s scalability, comes with several minor issues amid the testnet launch. With developers watching the testnet deployment, the success of this move will determine the imminent launch on the mainnet in April.

The Ethereum Pectra Upgrade Testnet Details

Galaxy Researcher Christine Kim on X said the upgrade launched at Epoch 115,968/115,965. The update was deployed at slot 3710978, with an active validator count of 1775010. The testnet came with a Genesis Fork Version of 0x01017000 and a total staked Ethereum worth 56766401 ETH. Unfortunately, the Pectra upgrade on the Holesky testnet was not finalized.

For context, Finality is a crucial step in block addition as it ensures that a confirmed transaction is immutable and irreversible. This is one of the pressing issues with the Holesky testnet deployment. However, at the time of writing, Ethereum developers were troubleshooting the chain. It is not yet certain why the transaction failed to finalize on the Holesky testnet. 

About a year ago, the Dencun hard fork upgrade was also not finalized on the Goerli testnet during its initial testing phase.

Pectra Hardfork Official Launch Timeline

Meanwhile, this deployment of the Pectra hard fork, which combines 11 major upgrades, aligns with an earlier timeline agreed by developers, as reported earlier by CoinGape. 

During the 203rd All Core Developers Execution (ACDE) call held in mid-January, the developers agreed to launch the upgrade early to mid-March. 

However, the absence of Finality may derail the launch plan, especially if the root cause of the issue is not identified soon. Originally, the plan was to launch the upgrade on the mainnet before mid-April, a timeline that might shift.

Impact of Pectra on Ethereum Price

Market observers and analysts expect that this hard fork’s eventual debut will trigger Ethereum’s massive price gain. At press time, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was trading at $2,500.77. Within the last 24 hours, it has lost 11.2% of its market value in line with the broader market downturn.

Still, crypto analyst CryptoGoos predicted in an earlier ETH price analysis that the coin may hit $10,000. The crypto enthusiast pointed out that ETH is already following in the footsteps of Bitcoin before a massive pump. 

CryptoGoos prediction aligns with that of Crypto King. Another analyst noted that “ETH is breaking towards $10,000.”

CryptoCaesar, a prominent crypto voice, also once suggested that Ethereum is set for a breakout above $6000. These projections form the basis to assume Ethereum may be nearing its bottom price.