Ethereum devs confirm Dencun upgrade's mainnet deployment, Grayscale calls it ETH's 'coming of age' moment

Ethereum Foundation said the highly anticipated Dencun upgrade has been “successfully activated on all testnets” and is scheduled for deployment on the mainnet by Mar. 13 — at epoch 269568, according to a Feb. 27 statement.

According to the Foundation, the upgrade will usher in significant changes, including introducing ephemeral data blobs with EIP-4844. This is also known as “protodanksharding” and is expected to reduce the blockchain’s Layer-2 network transaction fees.

Ethereum ‘coming-of-age’

Grayscale Investments believes the Dencun upgrade represents Ethereum’s “coming-of-age” as it will drastically improve its competitiveness in terms of scalability.

Grayscale described ETH’s poor performance compared to rival smart contract-enabled networks over the past year as its “adolescent phase,” arguing that the Dencun upgrade would allow the network to grow.

The firm emphasized that Dencun would be instrumental in addressing Ethereum’s historical challenges of slow transaction speeds, low throughput, and high fees while enhancing its modular design expansion.

This enhancement could close the gap between ETH Layer-2 solutions like Optimism and Arbitrum versus Solana and potentially triple these Layer-2s’ operating margins.

Furthermore, Grayscale highlighted how protocols like EigenLayer could democratize the “security as a service” concept to benefit the broader industry.

“EigenLayer accrues value to Ethereum by diversifying its utility and reinforcing its position as a foundational security layer for the wider crypto ecosystem,” Grayscale said.

Price surge

During the past month, ETH’s price has climbed more than 42% to more than $3000, with observers suggesting that the run was fueled by optimism surrounding a possible spot Ethereum ETF.

However, Grayscale indicated that this price increase could also be attributed to the impending Dencun upgrade and the hype generated by its promised improvements.

The firm said:

“We believe that recent price performance reflects the market’s anticipation of this upgrade, as Ethereum (up 26% YTD) has outperformed the broader Smart Contract Platforms Sector (up 3% YTD) since Jan. 1.”