Ether hits $4,000 level for the first time; m-cap tops $450 billion
Premium- Since the start of the year, ether has surged over 450%, against a 100% jump in bitcoin
NEW DELHI : Ether, the native cryptocurrency of the ethereum network, on Monday broke above the $4,000 level for the first time, as investors continued to diversify beyond bitcoin. The market capitalization of the world’s second-biggest cryptocurrency topped $450 billion.
Over the past year, a lot of investors who got into bitcoin have become aware of ether and started diversifying their crypto portfolios. Since the start of the year, ether has surged over 450%, against a 100% jump in bitcoin.
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The world’s second-largest cryptocurrency was trading at $4,097.36, up by 3.9% as of 11.20 am IST after moving in a wide range of $3,767.19-4,131.67 over the past 24 hours, as per CoinGecko.
Meanwhile, bitcoin was 0.8% higher at $58,879.45. The world’s oldest and the biggest cryptocurrency is still 9% away from its all-time high of $64,804.72, which it hit on 14 April 2021.
“Ether is giving serious competition to the crypto king, bitcoin. Ether has given more than 450% returns since the beginning of this year and the bull run is expected to continue in the coming months. The growth is fuelled by DeFi gaining popularity in the financial systems across the world," said Shivam Thakral, chief executive officer, BuyUcoin, a cryptocurrency exchange.
Ether's market capitalization now stands close to $480 billion, which is more than the market cap of companies such as Walmart and Johnson & Johnson.
“Ethereum network fundamentals, which include several transactions, active address, fee collection, and many other metrics, are making ether fundamentally strong. The London Hard Fork happening in July 2021 will introduce EIP 1559 to the network, which will substantially cut down on gas fees, which will further boost the growth of ethereum in the future," he added.
The launch of ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) on a Canadian exchange has been seen as a major step towards making digital assets mainstream. While bitcoin’s most well-known use case is a store of value, ethereum has several real-world applications.
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