12-5-2025 – Ethereum’s native token has eclipsed the market capitalisation of global powerhouses Coca-Cola and Alibaba, following the successful implementation of its highly anticipated Pectra upgrade.
Data from 8marketcap reveals Ether has secured its position as the world’s 39th-largest asset, with its value reaching $2,550 and commanding a market capitalisation exceeding $308 billion. This positions the cryptocurrency ahead of both Coca-Cola, valued at $303.5 billion with shares trading at $70, and Alibaba, whose $125 share price yields a $303.7 billion market cap.
The catalyst for this dramatic 42% surge over five days stems from the mainnet deployment of Pectra, a comprehensive network enhancement that faced several challenges before its eventual launch. The upgrade’s journey to implementation proved eventful, with initial tests on the Holesky testnet revealing finalisation issues, followed by complications on the Sepolia testnet, where an attacker disrupted proceedings by mining empty blocks.
These setbacks prompted Ethereum’s development team to establish a new testing environment dubbed “Hoodi” before successfully deploying the upgrade on 7th May, two months later than initially planned.
The technical improvements introduced by Pectra are substantial, enabling externally owned accounts to function as smart contracts for gas fee management and non-ETH token payments. Additionally, the upgrade increased validator staking limits from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH, whilst enhancing layer-2 scalability through increased data blob capacity per block.
However, security experts, including Solidity smart contract auditor Arda Usman, have raised concerns about potential vulnerabilities. Of particular concern is a new transaction mechanism that could potentially allow malicious actors to manipulate externally owned accounts without requiring onchain transaction signatures, potentially enabling unauthorised fund withdrawals through offchain signed messages.
The price trajectory since the upgrade has been noteworthy, with Ether climbing from $1,786 to $2,550 between 7th and 12th May, according to CoinGecko data, marking one of the most significant price movements in recent months.