Following the successful launch of Ethereum's Pectra upgrade on May 7, the market capitalization of Ether (ETH) surged 42% in five days. On May 12, ETH surpassed Coca-Cola and Alibaba, ranking as the world's 39th-largest asset by market capitalization, according to 8marketcap.
At the time of publication, ETH was trading at approximately $2,550, with a market cap exceeding $308 billion. This compares to Coca-Cola's market cap of $303.53 billion and Alibaba's $303.72 billion, with their stocks trading at around $70 and $125, respectively.
The Pectra upgrade improves layer-2 scaling data storage, validator user experience, and smart account wallet user experience features. Since the upgrade on May 7, ETH's price has risen from about $1,786 to as high as $2,550 on May 12, marking a significant increase in value.
The upgrade also allows externally owned accounts (EOAs) to act as smart contracts for gas fees and payments using non-ETH tokens. Validator staking limits were increased from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH, simplifying operations for large stakers, and the number of data blobs per block was increased for better scalability.
However, cybersecurity experts have warned of potential security risks post-upgrade. Attackers could exploit a new transaction type to control EOAs without users signing onchain transactions, potentially draining funds through offchain signed messages.
This article is based on our author's analysis of materials taken from the following resources: Cointelegraph.