Ethereum Upgrades Have Failed to Boost Network Activity in Meaningful Way: JPMorgan

The Ethereum blockchain has yet to see a significant increase in activity despite successive upgrades, investment bank JPMorgan (JPM) said in a research report.

“Neither the number of daily transactions nor the number of active addresses saw a material increase post recent upgrades,” analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote in the Wednesday report.

Still, total value locked (TVL) on Ethereum increased between the Dencun upgrade in March 2024 and Pectra earlier this month, the bank noted, possibly due to increased lending and borrowing on decentralized exchanges (DEXs), but the increase looks lower in dollar terms than in the blockchain’s ether ETH token.

Ethereum activated the Pectra upgrade on May 7. The update aims to streamline staking, enhance wallet functionality and improve overall efficiency.

Pectra makes the ETH token and Ethereum itself more appealing to institutions, the bank said. It distinguishes the network from competitors, but the upgrades haven’t boosted activity in a meaningful way.

The bank noted that following the Dencun upgrade, both average and total fees fell, in part because of a shift toward layer 2 chains.

Ether’s circulating supply also increased after Dencun, which raised concerns about the crypto “becoming an inflationary asset amid subdued transaction activity,” JPMorgan said.

Futures positioning suggests that institutions played a large role in the recent rally in ether, the report added. Ether has risen more than 45% in the past month, CoinDesk data show.