Ethereum Hits New High After Pectra Upgrade: Staking Fever Sends ETH Price Towards $4,000?

Ethereum (ETH) price has just made a strong bounce, surpassing the $2,400 mark for the first time in over two months, as the Pectra upgrade officially launched its mainnet and spurred a wave of staking across the ecosystem.

The world's second-largest altcoin surged nearly 20% in just 24 hours, reaching $2,448 on May 9, 2025. This was one of the strongest days of price growth since the 2021 bull run, bringing Ethereum back into the spotlight of the digital asset market.

Pectra Officially Activated – What's Getting the ETH Community So Excited?
The long-awaited Pectra upgrade has been successfully deployed on the Ethereum mainnet at epoch 364032, at exactly 10:05:11 UTC on May 7, 2025. Although it was delayed from its original March schedule, the Ethereum development team decided to move forward with the official deployment after completing testing on the Hoodi network.

Some notable improvements in Pectra include:

EIP-3074 (Account Abstraction): Allows individual wallets to perform more complex transactions with a simplified user experience, while supporting transaction fee funding.

PeerDAS (Peer Data Availability Sampling): Increases verification efficiency for Layer-2 roll-ups, significantly reducing operational costs.

Increased Maximum Staking Limit: From 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH, Opening Up the Opportunity for Large Validators to Consolidate Computing Power and Stake More Efficiently

Staking Boom: The Key to Higher ETH Prices
The launch of Pectra has been a catalyst for a new staking craze. According to data from CryptoQuant, in just three months from February to May 2025, the number of staked ETH increased from 33.78 million to 34.41 million – an additional 627,000 ETH, reflecting strong confidence in the Ethereum network.

The end of 2024 saw a sharp decline in staking activity, but Pectra has reversed this trend, creating new momentum for long-term investors.

Bears Hit Hard: $4.77 Million Wiped Out in Hours
The sudden surge has wiped out many short positions in the derivatives market. Specifically, according to LookOnChain, a large investment fund lost more than $4.7 million in less than 8 hours, due to using 25x leverage to bet on ETH falling.

Currently, analysts are setting a short-term target for ETH in the $3,700-$4,000 range, as money continues to flow into the Ethereum network and investor confidence reaches new heights.

Risks and Potentials: A Multi-Dimensional Look at the Pectra Upgrade
Despite the huge performance and scalability benefits, some experts have expressed concerns about the increased stake limit to 2,048 ETH, which could expose the network to the risk of centralization if a small number of validators control the majority of ETH stakes.

However, on the other hand, small validators can pool stake more flexibly, optimizing rewards and reducing individual risks when operating nodes.

Conclusion: Staking is a sign of confidence
The steady increase in ETH staking ratio is a strong indicator of investor confidence in the long-term value of Ethereum. With technical support from Pectra, combined with the positive sentiment of the overall market, the possibility of ETH hitting $4,000 in the near future is entirely possible.