Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade lands on mainnet

L1/L2 fee and account features are plumbing for micropayments.

On 7 May 2025 the Ethereum Foundation recorded the Pectra mainnet upgrade. Pectra is not an agent-payments protocol; it is base-layer plumbing that affects L2 costs and account features that wallets use. x402’s commercial claim still depends on cheap L2 fees remaining cheap.

Why it matters

If L2 fees spike, per-call USDC APIs degrade before any 402 spec text changes.

Source: Ethereum Foundation Blog

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