Ethereum (ETH) set a new all-time high price a few hours ago after surpassing the $1,440 mark in an impressive run
Ether has set a new all-time high (ATH) price for the first time in three years. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap broke its previous ATH price of $1,432.88 yesterday. This is the first time this level has been breached since 13 January 2018.
Ether, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network, has been on an impressive run in recent weeks, up by 30% over the past seven days and nearly 15% in the last 24 hours. It has become the latest cryptocurrency to set a new all-time high in the current bull cycle following Bitcoin’s (BTC) impressive surge past $20,000 to reach $42,000 within a few weeks.
The cryptocurrency began to display signs of reaching a new ATH earlier this month. However, it fell victim to the market correction that took place last week. Since then, ETH has recovered, rising by over 30% over the past week.
Ether’s rally saw its total market cap cross $150 billion, further cementing its position as the second-largest cryptocurrency as it continues to provide competition to Bitcoin’s epic bull run. Its market cap of $159 billion is nearly ten times that of Tether (USDT) and Polkadot (DOT), which occupy the third and fourth place in terms of market cap, respectively.
Although Ethereum is trailing behind Bitcoin in terms of price and value, ETH has outperformed BTC this year. Ether is up by 92% year-to-date, while BTC is up by only 27% since the start of the year.
According to Messari.io, ETH is up by more than 1,000% since the initial coin offering (ICO) of the cryptocurrency in 2015.
Ethereum has become the go-to blockchain for decentralised applications (dApps). In recent times, the rise of decentralised finance (DeFi) apps have also helped boost the Ethereum network as the apps are hosted on the ETH network’s blockchain.
The cryptocurrency’s price rally could be attributed to the current market performance and the ongoing Ethereum 2.0 development. ETH 2.0 will upgrade the blockchain significantly, allowing it to handle more transactions. It is already touted as Web 3.0 and is expected to knit today’s social networks with integral money systems.