Ethereum finally deployed its Pectra upgrade on the Hoodi testnet. However, ETH price still gained downward momentum.
Ethereum ETH $4 057 24h volatility: 1.6% Market cap: $489.75 B Vol. 24h: $41.07 B deployed the Pectra upgrade on the Hoodi testnet, the last of the three tests, on March 26, getting closer to the mainnet upgrade.
The Pectra upgrade is expected to significantly improve Ethereum’s scalability and security, helping it offer services to more users without facing congestion issues. It will also improve the proof-of-stake network’s transaction throughput and reduce the latency.
Running an upgrade on a testnet, identical to the mainnet, allows developers to fix any issues like bugs before deploying on the original network. If the upgrade goes smoothly on Hoodi, Ethereum will likely see the upgrade on the mainnet by April 25.
One of the key features of the Pectra upgrade is that it will let developers run smart contracts on wallets and allow users to pay gas fees in different tokens instead of just Ethereum (ETH).
The successful Pectra upgrade on Hoodi triggered whale accumulation due to the optimism surrounding the long-awaited improvements.
According to data from Lookonchain, four whale addresses withdrew nearly 16,000 ETH, worth roughly $32 million, from leading crypto exchanges like Binance, Gemini, OKX and Kraken right after the Hoodi testnet received the upgrade.
Whale accumulation usually triggers bullish sentiment among retail investors. However, the leading altcoin still faced correction toward the $2,000 mark.
Ethereum’s Stuck
The ETH price recorded a 2.2% decline in the past 24 hours despite the bullish news surrounding the network. Ethereum is currently trading at $2,020.
Moreover, the selling pressure triggered $48 million in ETH liquidations, $39 million longs and $9 million shorts, according to data provided by CoinGlass. The total amount of crypto liquidations reached $248 million.
The largest single liquidation order in the market happened on the HTX exchange and is worth $3.15 million in the ETH-USDT trading pair.
Spot ETH exchange-traded funds in the US also added to the bearish momentum with a net outflow of $5.9 million on March 26. The last time these investment products saw an inflow was on March 4, losing $410 million in value this month, according to data from SoSoValue.