In just five days, Ethereum has risen 42%, overtaking global giants Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO ) and Alibaba (NYSE: BABA ) in market capitalization. The growth follows the successful implementation of the long-awaited Pectra upgrade to the Ethereum mainnet on May 7.

According to market data from 8marketcap, Ethereum's market cap surpassed $308 billion as of Monday, putting the altcoin ahead of Coca-Cola's $303.5 billion and Alibaba's $303.7 billion. At the time of writing, Ethereum ranked 39th in the world by market cap, trailing Bank of America (NYSE: BAC ) by about $7 billion.

The altcoin's rise began almost immediately after the Pectra update, which was launched last Wednesday. The developers called the update "the most ambitious for Ethereum" since The Merge in 2022, when the network switched from a Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm to a Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm.

Pectra has added a number of technology improvements that make the user experience more convenient and validators more flexible and scalable. Some of the changes include account abstraction now supported, validator staking limits increased, and improved data handling for second-layer scaling.