Ethereum's recent major upgrade is called *Pectra*. This upgrade combines the Prague and Electra upgrades, focusing on improving scalability, usability, and staking efficiency ¹ ². Pectra introduces several key changes, including:

- *Programmable Wallets*: Allowing Ethereum wallets to behave like smart contracts, enabling features like conditional transfers and automated trading strategies ².
- *Increased Staking Cap*: Raising the staking limit per validator from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH, simplifying validator operations but potentially centralizing power ².
- *Verkle Trees*: Replacing Merkle trees to reduce data storage needs and improve scalability [7).

Pectra is currently being tested on Ethereum's testnets, with an expected mainnet launch in April 2025 ¹.