Ethereum on a roll as it keeps racking up all-time highs - CityAM
Ethereum provided the first crypto gift of the Easter break with an unexpected move to claim an all-time high as it breached the much-desired $2,000 mark to hit $2,147 tonight.
Despite spending much of its five-year lifespan in the shadow of principle actor Bitcoin (BTC), Vitalik Buterin’s brainchild took centre stage after a year of huge gains cemented its place as second billing in the cryptocurrency cast list.
This time last year, Ether (ETH) was worth less than $150 before it embarked on a near-constant ascending trajectory that brought it to today’s value.
ETH’s rise is in tandem with a remarkable crypto market effervescence which has seen impressive rises across the board.
Bridesmaid to Bitcoin
The bridesmaid to Bitcoin’s ever-present big day has, it should be noted, lately been a cause of repeated concern for analysts and traders who have been critical of rising charges and the, frankly, ‘clunky’ mechanic of the leading alternative to BTC.
But, time and time again, the native currency of the Ethereum blockchain has proved its stoicism in the face of reproach and continued to move its price upwards.
For many observers, though, it would appear that Ethereum’s stock is twinned with the movement of institutional investment in cryptocurrency.
“Ethereum’s price started to rally just as Visa started using its network to settle cryptocurrency transactions,” Greg Waisman, the co-founder and COO of the payment network Mercuryo, explained to The Independent’s Anthony Cuthbertson.
“Ethereum has seen other beneficial developments, such as prominent investor Mark Cuban revealing that he owns a lot of Ethereum, as he thinks that ETH is the closest to a true currency.
“As for the future, Ethereum breaking the $2,000 mark is a major achievement, which will possibly allow it to start using this level as a support and continue going higher up.”
To put ETH’s surge into context, it’s worth noting yesterday’s comments from Kraken CEO Jesse Powell who, when assessing what coins would be the stand-out performers of 2021, suggested Ether might just make it above $2,000.
“Hard to predict but I think we’ll see north of $2,000 a coin for Ethereum by the end of this year,” he said.
Right now, ETH is racking up all-time highs almost minute-by-minute. At the time the first sentence of this article was written, Ether was at $2,071. Five paragraphs ago, it was at $2,084. At the time the full stop at the end of this sentence, it had just notched $2,096.
Mark Cuban on his cryptocurrency portfolio: ‘I own a lot of Ethereum because I think it’s the closest to a true currency’
Billionaire investor Mark Cuban is bullish on the future of cryptocurrency and frequently compares blockchain technology to the early days of the internet.
That’s why, over the years, Cuban held onto the few digital coins he bought in the “early days,” Cuban said on a recent episode of “The Delphi Podcast.” Currently, his portfolio allocation is broken down as: “60% bitcoin, 30% Ethereum and 10% the rest.”
Bitcoin, created in 2009, is the largest cryptocurrency by market value, but is appealing to Cuban as a store of value rather than a currency.
In 2012, “people said bitcoin is a currency, and I’m like, ‘It’s just not going to work.’ But, the entire time, I said it was a store of value where, if you could get people to believe that it was a better alternative than gold, because of its algorithmic scarcity, the price is going to go up,” he said.
According to Cuban, bitcoin is “a better alternative to gold, and it’s going to continue [to be],” he said. “That’s why I own bitcoin and why I never sold it.”
Cuban is also very interested in Ethereum — the blockchain where ether, the second largest cryptocurrency below bitcoin, is built — mainly due to the smart contracts that run on it. In cryptocurrency, smart contracts are collections of code that carry out a set of instructions and run on the blockchain.
“What really changed everything was smart contracts,” Cuban said. “Smart contracts came along, and that created DeFi [or decentralized finance] and NFTs [or nonfungible tokens]. That’s what changed the game. That’s what got me excited. That’s why it’s a lot like the internet.”
Mark Cuban sees bitcoin as better than gold, likes Ethereum
April 2, 2021 4 min read
This story originally appeared on ValueWalk
Billionaire investor Mark Cuban remains bullish on the future of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, often comparing blockchain technology to the internet’s earliest days. He discussed his cryptocurrency portfolio on a recent episode of The Delphi Podcast.
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Currently, Cuban’s cryptocurrency portfolio consists of 60% bitcoin and 30% Ethereum. The remaining 10% of the portfolio consists of other digital currencies.
Mark Cuban on bitcoin
Cuban likes bitcoin and Ethereum for different reasons. He disagrees with those who said bitcoin is a currency because he doesn’t think it will work. However, he does see it as a store of value and a better alternative to gold. Cuban believes bitcoin will continue to be a better alternative to gold, which is why he bought some and never sold it.
The owner of the Dallas Mavericks also likes Ethereum, but it’s for a very different reason than why he likes bitcoin. He thinks ether is the closest coin to being a digital currency because of the smart contracts that run on the Ethereum blockchain. CNBC explains that smart contracts are collections of code that follow certain rules while running on the blockchain.
Cuban said smart contracts changed everything by creating decentralized finance and nonfungible tokens. He added that the technology is why he is excited about cryptocurrency and why he thinks it is “a lot like the internet.”
The billionaire investor also believes Ethereum can be adapted over time because developers can improve its capabilities, which makes it more life-like. Cuban wishes he had bought some Ethereum sooner, but he started purchasing it four years ago because he thinks it is the closest to a true currency.
Cuban bought Dogecoin too
He didn’t discuss any of the other cryptocurrencies he owns as the other 10% of his portfolio. However, he did say that there aren’t any that he’s “just all in on, other than bitcoin and Ethereum” as being an equivalent investment.
In February, he did purchase a small amount of dogecoin for his 11-year-old son. Dogecoin was started as a joke, and Cuban said when he bought some, it was meant to be “fun and educational” for his son while also enabling him to learn more about cryptocurrency.
Dogecoin has received a boost recently from Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s tweets. When he initially started tweeting about the cryptocurrency, his tweets were meant to have been a joke, but that appears to have changed.
His most recent tweet about dogecoin proclaimed that SpaceX would “put a literal Dogecoin on the literal moon.” Some questioned whether that was a joke because he posted the tweet on April Fool’s Day, but CNBC space reporter Michael Sheetz took him seriously because the company’s first payload into orbit was a wheel of cheese.
The drama of cryptocurrency
As time has gone on, the cryptocurrency space has been marked with drama, from bitcoin’s soaring price to the jokes surrounding the creation of dogecoin. More and more institutional investors have adopted the cryptocurrency, and some traditional investment banks are allowing their investors to buy some. Chipotle Mexican Grill even started a contest offering customers a chance to win $200,000 worth of bitcoin and free burritos to celebrate National Burrito Day.
Now the Youa Group is putting the drama of cryptocurrency to the small screen with a TV series called Pumping Time. The series will include some special episodes lasting up to 100 minutes and many regular episodes lasting up to 30 minutes.
It will also include some theatrical presentations. The series will include a variety of real-life situations involving cryptocurrency, including top cryptocurrency exchanges and funds. Well-known CEOs and celebrities in the crypto world will make cameo appearances. The series will also dive into questionable crypto tactics to teach the public about potential risks.