On March 19, the Ethereum Foundation published an article stating that the activation of the Pectra testnet exposed problems with the client’s configuration changes in the deposit contract in the Ethereum testnet. While Sepolia’s recovery process was relatively simple and the network has now fully recovered, Holesky experienced a large-scale inactivity leak in its recovery mechanism.

The Holesky network has since been finalized, but it will take about a year for the exiting validators to be completely removed from the validator set. While stakers can test deposits, merging, and all other Pectra features, the size of the exit queue makes it impossible for Holesky to test the full validator lifecycle in a reasonable timeframe.

To address this issue, a new testnet Hoodi has been launched. Hoodi will activate the Pectra network upgrade at epoch 2048 (07:37:12 UTC on Wednesday, March 26, 2025). Going forward, staking operators and infrastructure providers should use Hoodi for validator testing. To allow time for migration, the Holesky testnet will be supported until September 2025. With the exception of validator exits, all other Pectra features can still be tested on Holesky.

More Information available in: https://cooldragon.io/