The two biggest virtual assets — bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) — are currently on track to break records and make doubting Thomases think again.
Despite its recent hiccups that helped rivals grow, ETH breached past the $2,000 mark for the first time on Saturday, while BTC, which has registered 1 trillion in market value, hovered above $56,000.
Ether has added a new feather to its cap as more institutional investors have bolstered their positions in recent weeks.
Ether’s wild run
One Ether is currently pegged at $1,962.09, an increase of more than 22 times compared to figures from last year.
Ether’s price advance over the past few weeks has pushed Ethereum’s market value to more than $225 billion, figures from CoinGecko show.
Ether’s latest rally represents a nearly 170% increase since the start of 2021. Bitcoin, in comparison, has surged to an equally impressive 93% in the same period.
This early, crypto luminaries are already bullish on ETH:
“A global computing network for Web3 (internet 3.0) is extremely exciting and new. I would say over the next three months, we could see ether hit $2,500,” Reuters quoted Luis Cuende, co-founder of Aragon, as saying. Aragon is a decentralized app on the Ethereum blockchain.
Ethereum’s ascent has seemingly been propelled by at least two factors:
First, retail and institutional investment in Bitcoin has helped boost interest in digital currencies more generally.
Second, DeFi (decentralized finance), a good chunk of which runs on top of the Ethereum blockchain, has been on the rise.
“We believe investors are looking to diversify and are growing increasingly comfortable with Ethereum fundamentals,” James Butterfill said in a research document quoted by Investopedia. Butterfill is an investment planner at CoinShares.
The ether “slingshot”, according to Kenetic Capital co-founder Jehan Chu, is in motion, with the No. 2 coin looking set to spike relative to bitcoin’s $56,000-plus level.
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