On February 24, at epoch 115,968, Ethereum developers activated the Pectra hard fork in the Holesky testnet. As a result, the network stopped finalizing slots.

According to Paritosh Jayanthi from the Ethereum Foundation, the upgrade faced a configuration issue across the network’s three main clients. Fixes are already available, and operators need to update their software, he added.

The Pectra fork adds a lot of new config values, these are usually system contracts . However, EIP-6110 moves the deposits detection from the domain of the CL to the domain of the EL.

This implies the EL needs to configure the deposit contract.
(2/13)https://t.co/c5ev3RfnA1
— parithosh | 🐼👉👈🐼 (@parithosh_j) February 25, 2025

“Pectra introduces many new configuration values, mainly related to system contracts. However, EIP-6110 moves deposit detection from the CL domain to the EL domain. This means execution-level configurations are required,” Jayanthi explained.

The identified bug does not affect the mainnet and is specific to Holesky, the developer clarified.

This might sound weird, but before Pectra EL clients didn’t have to “know” that the deposit contract was special because the CL just read from it directly.

Now, because deposits can be triggered by the EL and aren’t delayed by 2048 blocks (to account for PoW reorgs pre-merge),… https://t.co/CVuf5r6thM
— timbeiko.eth (@TimBeiko) February 25, 2025

“The issue arose because Holesky (and Sepolia) deposit contracts have different addresses from the mainnet. Why? No idea,” confirmed Ethereum team lead Tim Beiko.

The team will discuss further steps to restore testnet functionality in an upcoming teleconference.

“This error gives us insights into how the mainnet would react in such a scenario. It provides us with enough time to fix issues before they become critical,” Jayanthi emphasized.

The activation of the Pectra hard fork in the Sepolia testnet is tentatively scheduled for March 5.