The recent surge in Ether's market capitalization by 42% over just five days has garnered significant attention in the cryptocurrency world. This surge followed the successful launch of Ethereum's Pectra upgrade on its mainnet. The data tracker 8marketcap revealed that Ether (ETH) had surpassed well-known companies like Coca-Cola and Alibaba, ranking as the world's 39th-largest asset by market capitalization. At the time of publication, ETH was trading at around $2,550, with a market cap exceeding $308 billion. In comparison, Coca-Cola's stock trades at approximately $70, giving it a market cap of $303.5 billion, and Alibaba's stock trades at about $125, with a market capitalization of $303.7 billion.

The recent price surge of ETH can be attributed to the successful implementation of the Pectra upgrade on the Ethereum mainnet. Originally scheduled for March 2025, the upgrade faced delays due to technical challenges during testing. After being deployed on Ethereum's Holesky testnet on Feb. 24, the upgrade encountered issues, leading developers to address them. Subsequent deployments on the Sepolia testnet faced errors exacerbated by an attacker causing the mining of empty blocks. To ensure a smooth deployment, Ethereum core developers created a new testnet called "Hoodi" before finally rolling out the upgrade to the mainnet on May 7.

The Pectra upgrade brought several improvements, including the ability for externally owned accounts (EOAs) to act as smart contracts for covering gas fees and payments using tokens other than ETH. Validator staking limits were also increased to 2,048 ETH from 32 ETH, simplifying operations for large stakers. Additionally, the upgrade enhanced scalability for layer-2 networks by increasing the number of data blobs per block.

Since the upgrade, the price of ETH has experienced significant growth. On May 7, Ether was trading at around $1,786, according to CoinGecko. By May 12, Ether had surged to $2,550, marking a 42% increase in value.

While the Pectra upgrade has brought about positive changes, security professionals have warned of potential risks. Following the upgrade, cybersecurity experts cautioned that attackers could exploit a new transaction type to control EOAs without requiring users to sign onchain transactions. Solidity smart contract auditor Arda Usman highlighted these vulnerabilities, noting that attackers could potentially drain funds through offchain signed messages.

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Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/ether-market-cap-surges-past-coca-cola-alibaba-pectra-upgrade?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound