Ethereum Upgrades to Watch in 2025

Ethereum is a living, breathing network that a world-class network of developers helps keep on the cutting edge.

In 2024, Ethereum made major progress in its rollup-centric evolution by introducing blob space with its Dencun upgrade, which helped L2s lower transaction costs by 10x-100x.

Today, we're taking a look at some of the Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) and Ethereum Requests for Comment (ERCs) that I'm most watching this year. Several of these are already slated for the Pectra upgrade, which we covered in full here, while others are likely further out but already have some high-profile backers.

Below, let's take a look at five of the noteworthy Ethereum upgrades that builders are advocating for. 👇

👜 EIP-3074

Another one of the most talked about improvements being included in the Pectra upgrade is EIP-3074. This upgrade offers a simpler, cheaper, and better UX for anyone interacting with Ethereum. Users will be able to bundle multiple transactions into just 1, projects can sponsor users’ transactions and pay for their gas fees, and there is now a method to recover your wallet in case you lose your private keys. 

Read more about 3074 in our deep dive below!

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💰 EIP-7251

Validators with large amounts of ETH are going to love EIP-7251 as they will now be able to earn additional rewards on any amount of ETH staked over the 32 ETH standard. Previously, any amount of ETH staked over 32 was just sitting there, idly. Validators would have to set up a whole different validator node and have an additional 32 ETH if they want to stake it. With 7251, they are able to set up a single validator node and stake all of the ETH that they hold. Hopefully, this will lead to large institutions running their own validator node and becoming more involved in the ecosystem.

This Pectra inclusion could also improve the speed of the Ethereum network through validator consolidation. Projects like Lido can now run fewer validator nodes since they can earn rewards on top of any amount of ETH staked over the base 32 ETH amount.

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🔐 EIP-7002

A Pectra inclusion: Let’s say that you want to reap the rewards of running a validator node but don't want to deal with the nonsense. You would delegate that responsibility to a validator node operator and give them the validator key, which is used to certify and propose blocks. At some point later on, you want to pull your ETH and do something else with it but the only way that you can withdraw your ETH is if a “Voluntary Exit Message” is signed with the validator key. If the operator decides to troll you and not sign the message or the validator key gets compromised, someone can hold your ETH for ransom.

With EIP-7002, stakers can withdraw their ETH with just the withdraw key. This removes the risk of rogue operators not signing exit messages or validator keys being compromised and your ETH being held for ransom. 

🧠 ERC-7683

Intents have been a hot topic in DeFi over the past couple of years, ERC-7683 is a token standard that is attempting to tackle interoperability issues head-on and define the shared structures of a cross-chain intent, "acting like an order ticket that anyone can create and any solver can fulfill," the ERC's site reads.

This standard first came out in 2024 and was authored by Uniswap and Across Protocol. With the continued adoption of ERC-7683, we could see huge strides being made in the interoperability space.

💪 ERC-7841

ERC-7841 is a very young token standard that caught some eyeballs over the holidays over its approach to tackling interoperability. This standard proposes a low-level message format and API for applications to read and write messages from other chains. 7841 takes away any sort of chain-specific logic so that applications can be launched across multiple chains seamlessly. There are a few other EIPs out there with similar aims, but continued excitement here showcases strong momentum around interoperability.