The Ethereum Dencun update is live.

The upgrade offers a number of significant improvements to Ethereum's efficiency, scalability and usability.

Ethereum has successfully completed its long-awaited "Dencun" update. The upgrade of the cryptocurrency's leading altcoin went live on schedule at 2:55 p.m. ET,

Dencun includes a series of improvements to the Ethereum network to optimize its efficiency, scalability and usability. It is the largest update to the network since the Shapella update.

Dencun's most profound improvement is EIP-4844, which mainly benefits Ethereum's layer 2 networks, such as Arbitrum, Base and others. Network fees, known as gas fees, are now lowered many times on these networks.

What Dencun means for the ETH course

The ETH price fell slightly in the wake of the news, hovering just below the $4,000 mark at the time of writing. Prices of popular layer 2 tokens, including Arbitrum (ARB), Optimism (OP) and Polygon (MATIC), posted price gains of up to 10 percent in the interim, but have also lost some ground since then.

Despite Bitcoin's dominance in the wake of the launch of ETFs in the U.S., Ethereum has been able to make up some ground on the cryptocurrency in recent weeks. After several attempts, ETH has managed to move above the critical support level of 0.054 BTC. The recent rise could be a sign that ETH is ready to regain Stepping out of the shadow of Bitcoin. ETH could also now assert itself more against its smart contracts competitors, Solana and Co.

This opinion is also shared by Bitget CEO Gracy Chen. According to her, the update "would likely help Ethereum gain greater market share over competitors such as Solana, as the Ethereum blockchain is already far ahead of its competitors in terms of the number of active developers, TVLs and dApps. The expected benefits of upgrade and liquidity are particularly beneficial for Ethereum to attract new financial applications and developers."

But she warns investors at the same time. They "should also consider diversifying their investments and not allocate a significant portion of their portfolio based solely on the potential impact of the upgrade." It is not uncommon for major updates to blockchain projects to become a "sell the news" event in the short term.

What's next for Ethereum?

With the successful completion of EIP-4844, Ethereum can add another point to its roadmap checkout. In the near future, the team plans to use "the Scourge" to address recurring concerns about centralization that have arisen, for example, from the dominance of staking provider Lido Finance.

Later, "the Verge" should simplify block validation, significantly reducing the overall complexity of Ethereum. There is no exact deadline for completion of the roadmap, but it will likely take a few more years.