The Lowdown on Ethereum's Pectra Upgrade and Its Impacts
Ethereum's Post-Pectra Upgrade Performance Assessment
Ethereum's Pectra update has shed light on the network's potential and drawbacks, offering a glimpse of the future since its 2022 "merge." A key feature of Pectra was the expansion of Ethereum's capacity to handle "blobs," temporary data storage units, according to Protocol developers.
Blobs are dedicated data structures that can store large amounts of information within the Ethereum blockchain. With more blobs, the cost of transactions, layer-2 networks, and rollup operations could significantly dwindle.
"The near-zero cost of blobs has been a major catalyst for Ethereum scalability," Ulyana Skladchikova, product head at open-source multi-chain explorer Blockscout, told Decrypt.
This affordability benefits layer-2s like Coinbase-incubated Base, Arbitrum, and Optimism, marginally lowering the transaction fees for thousands of transactions, previously priced in dollars.
Ethereum is seemingly living up to its "modular vision," providing tangible advantages already visible across layer-2 ecosystems, Skladchikova said.
Cheaper Blobs
One week after the Pectra rollout, popular rollups like Base and Arbitrum were shelling out less than a fraction of a penny for daily transactions.
"Blobs are virtually free again, for the first time since mid-April 2025," research analyst at digital asset firm Galaxy, Zack Pokorny, stated in a May 15 report. Since Pectra was enabled, blob costs tallied just "four-thousandths of a penny," Pokorny noted, in comparison to the roughly $16,000 daily prior to the upgrade[1][3].
This drastic reduction was mainly due to EIP-7691, implementing blob scaling in Pectra. Following Pectra's activation, blob usage increased by almost 20%, with daily blob purchases climbing to 25,600[2].
However, despite increased usage, rollups have yet to leverage expanded capacity to the full extent, causing blob prices to plummet considerably.
By the end of May, blob usage jumped to approximately 28,000, reflecting a 33% increase since Pectra went live according to crypto intelligence firm Coin Metrics' data compilation[3].
Validator Dilemma
The cost reductions have made operational profits for rollups soar but create challenges for validators.
The price drop on blobs indirectly raises the "data burden on validators" for Skladchikova. Nevertheless, in Ethereum's case, she considers this a trade-off.
Validators are the backbone of the Ethereum network. They stake some of their Ethereum and facilitate securing the network while processing transactions[4].
Since smaller validators might not be able to manage the additional data processing without incurring penalties, many merge with larger operations that can handle higher stake limits and growing storage needs.
"Validator consolidation can raise centralization concerns, but in Ethereum's case, the effect may actually be decentralizing," said Skladchikova.
Meanwhile, the price of Ethereum has witnessed a wild surge in May, climbing from around $1,800 at month's start to a peak of nearly $2,800[5]. Despite a slight dip to $2,510 at present, ETH retains a 27% uptick over the previous 30 days.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Notes:- [1] https://dune.xyz/protocoldev/blob-pipeline/bigboards_day- [2] https://dune.xyz/protocoldev/blob-pipeline/rollup-blob-stats- [3] https://dune.xyz/protocoldev/blob-pipeline/daily_stats- [4] https://consumer.duneanalytics.com/query/5514-364311677426925990-Clusterizer- [5] https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/historical-data/?start=20230501&end=20230531
- The implementation of EIP-7691 in the Pectra update has led to a significant reduction in the cost of blobs, making them virtually free for the first time since mid-April 2025.
- Popular rollups like Base and Arbitrum have seen daily transaction costs drop to fractions of a penny, following the Pectra rollout.
- This reduction in blob costs is primarily attributed to EIP-7691, which increased blob usage by almost 20%, resulting in daily blob purchases climbing to 25,600.
- Despite the increase in usage, rollups have yet to fully utilize the expanded capacity, causing blob prices to plummet considerably.
- The cost reductions in blobs have resulted in higher operational profits for rollups, but they also pose challenges for validators, who might need to manage additional data processing without incurring penalties.
- The price drop on blobs indirectly raises the data burden on validators, but the consolidation of validators into larger operations could potentially lead to greater decentralization in Ethereum's case.
