Long-term selling pressure on Ether (ETH) is anticipated to lessen with Ethereum's impending Pectra upgrade on March 5

The price of Ethereum is struggling due to market volatility.Despite the expected advantages of the update, Ether has underperformed Bitcoin.

Long-term selling pressure on Ether (ETH) is expected to decrease with Ethereum’s upcoming Pectra upgrade on March 5, which could set the stage for the next bullish stage of the 2025 cryptocurrency market cycle.

The price of Ethereum has been struggling due to market volatility. Despite the anticipated advantages of the update, Ether has underperformed Bitcoin. Its price fell more than 32% in February, reaching a two-month low of $2,073 before rising to $2,245, according to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro.

Even though Pectra might not cause an instant price spike, Gabriel Halm, a research analyst at IntoTheBlock, emphasized that it is an important development for Ethereum’s ecosystem. The upgrade will improve the network’s competitive position by reducing consensus overhead, enhancing layer-2 scalability, and boosting capacity.

Further enabling validators to compound revenues more effectively, Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)-7251 will increase the validator staking maximum from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH. This could decrease the overall selling pressure as validators might opt to reinvest their rewards instead of selling them.

Merlijn, a cryptocurrency trader at IntoTheBlock, noted in a March 1 X post that Ether’s price drop aligns with fractal patterns from the 2017 bull cycle, which could foreshadow an upcoming rally.

According to Bendik Schelesvig, a researcher at Set Protocol, the upcoming Pectra update aims to improve scalability, boost investor trust, and provide the foundation for long-term price growth in the new market cycle.

Its leadership reorganization aligns with the attempts to strengthen Ethereum’s place in the evolving blockchain environment.

Vitalik Buterin also suggested ways to improve Ethereum’s sustainability in a blog post on January 23. These included encouraging layer-2 solutions to pay fees to the base layer and increasing the blob count to enhance transaction capacity.