Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin, on Thursday extended a breakaway rally to a new record high of US$3,616.10, gathering momentum as investors diverted focus from its main rival.
The rise is in part a spillover from flows into bitcoin, which has grown in stature as big-name investors from Elon Musk’s carmaker Tesla Inc to Wall Street investor Stanley Druckenmiller bought in.
Trading
Electronic currency has increased by 325% since the beginning of this year 2021 and currently has a capitalization of 376 billion dollars.
On the Bitstamp Exchange ether was last up about 4% at US$3,568.92. Bitcoin was down 0.3% at US$57,353.03 and about 11% below its record intraday high at US$64,895.22 set on April 14.
Reason
The rise of this cryptocurrency has been due to the growing popularity of decentralized finance applications (DeFi).
Decentralized finance is a system where financial products can be accessed on a decentralized public blockchain network, making it easy for people to transact without going through banks or brokerages.
Comment from Cryptocurrency Exchange
Konstantin Anissimov, Executive Director, “Ethereum has been able to maintain its positive momentum, a crushing series of all-time highs in the past week.”
“The current all-time high has reignited the ambitious sentiment that ethereum may eventually flippen (supplant) bitcoin by market capitalization in the near future.”
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