The Daily: Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade goes live, Coinbase unveils SEC emails on XRP and ETH, and more :

Happy Wednesday! Bitcoin climbed back around the $97,000 level this morning as U.S. and Chinese officials confirmed plans to meet in Switzerland over the weekend — fueling hopes of progress in the trade dispute and reigniting "risk-on" market sentiment.

In today's newsletter, Ethereum developers activate its Pectra upgrade, Coinbase reveals SEC documents regarding XRP and ETH, "hold in May and stay," bitcoin analysts say amid upcoming summer catalysts, and more.

Meanwhile, Russia could be the largest Bitcoin mining beneficiary if President Trump's tariffs hit in full, according to an industry expert.

Let's get started.

Ethereum's Pectra upgrade goes live

Ethereum developers activated the Pectra upgrade at epoch 364032, around 6:05 a.m. ET on Wednesday, marking the network's biggest update since The Merge in 2022.

Pectra introduces 11 Ethereum Improvement Proposals focused on boosting staking efficiency, user experience, validator operations, and Layer 2 scalability.
After early testnet issues, including Holesky validator misconfigurations, the March 2025 Hoodi deployment cleared the path for Pectra's mainnet launch.
Among Pectra's various improvements, EIP-7702 pushes account abstraction forward by enabling smart contract logic in wallets and gasless transactions.
EIP-7251 raises the maximum validator cap from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH, allowing large stakers to consolidate and streamline operations.
Building on Ethereum's Dencun upgrade of March 2024, which introduced proto-danksharding via EIP-4844, EIP-7691 doubles temporary data storage blob throughput to make Layer 2 rollups faster and cheaper as demand surges.
Pectra also slashes validator onboarding time, makes key historical data accessible onchain, and lays the groundwork for future upgrades like Fusaka.
#FOMCMeeting