May 2025 in Blockchain: Secret Updates and What’s Coming Next

May saw protocol groups shipping features, but absolutely nothing truly arrived. Chains remain in build mode, activating upgrades and hitting testnets. This suggests more efficiency, modularity, and work under the surface.

Absolutely needed if Arbitrum’s going to hold onto its lead while the rest of the rollup crowd levels up.

Optimism– You Most likely Missed It, However They Updated Everything

While everyone was viewing Ethereum’s Pectra rollout, Optimism and good friends in the Superchain just silently copied it. Sort of in a great way.

Within 48 hours of Pectra going live on Ethereum, Optimism Mainnet, Base (Coinbase’s chain), Zora, Worldcoin’s chain, and a couple of others all ran their own coordinated upgrade– codenamed Isthmus. If you’re into interop, coordination, or just things not breaking during upgrades, this one’s totally worth a nod.

There’s more coming too– next up is their Fusaka upgrade later on this year, which is indicated to plug in more sophisticated scaling tech like data availability sampling (basically the next action in Ethereum’s long game).

Let’s get into it.

Ethereum– Pectra’s Live Alright, Pectra. While the subnet angle makes sense– Avalanche’s entire thing is customized chains for custom-made usage cases– the genuine challenge will be adoption, UX, and getting FIFA’s audience to care. Definitely necessary if Arbitrum’s going to hold onto its lead while the rest of the rollup crowd levels up.

Optimism– You Probably Missed It, However They Upgraded Everything

While everybody was viewing Ethereum’s Pectra rollout, Optimism and pals in the Superchain just quietly copied it. Sort of in a great way.

Within 48 hours of Pectra going live on Ethereum, Optimism Mainnet, Base (Coinbase’s chain), Zora, Worldcoin’s chain, and a couple of others all ran their own collaborated upgrade– codenamed Isthmus. If you’re into interop, coordination, or just things not breaking during upgrades, this one’s totally worth a nod.

There’s more coming too– next up is their Fusaka upgrade later this year, which is suggested to plug in more advanced scaling tech like data availability sampling (generally the next action in Ethereum’s long game).