Not too long after hitting the $3,000 milestone, Ethereum has reached a new all-time high of more than $3,400. “Ether, the digital coin linked to the Ethereum blockchain, hit an all-time high of $3,456.57 as the cryptocurrency extends a rally that has seen its price gain around 360 percent”, CNBC reported. On Monday the second most popular cryptocurrency; Ethereum, hit a new all-time high of $3,017 on Monday, extending last week’s rally.
Ethereum is currently up more than 360 percent for the year and has surpassed that of Bitcoin which stands at 95 percent.
Ethereum’s network is decentralized, is an open source blockchain and has smart contract functionality. Ethereum is more than a cryptocurrency. It is both a network and organization. Ethereum went live on July 30th, 2015 and since then it has worked its way up to become one of the most sought-after cryptocurrencies. Ethereum is not only the most actively used blockchain, it is the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization after Bitcoin.
The number two crypto differs from other cryptocurrencies. Ethereum is first a platform that serves as a network that developers can use in creating their own cryptocurrencies. Ether is the cryptocurrency that is used on the platform. Ether is referred to as Ethereum most of the time and is represented by ETH.
Ethereum has seen an impressive growth from last year. According to data from Kraken, Ethereum traded for just $208 around this time last year and has therefore seen an increase of 1,359 percent.
Explaining Ethereum’s recent appearance in the spotlight, James Quinn; Managing Director at Q9 Capital and a Hong Kong cryptocurrency private wealth manager said that “At first, the rally was led by Bitcoin because as a lot of the institutional investors came into the space, that would be their natural first port of call…But as the rally has matured over the last six months, you have DeFi and a lot of DeFi is built on Ethereum”
According to experts, the rave around Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) is another reason why Ethereum has made it to the spotlight.
