Ethereum passes $3,500, makes 27-year-old founder a billionaire

Ethereum passes $3,500, makes 27-year-old founder a billionaire

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Most cryptocurrency headlines this year have followed Bitcoin and Dogecoin, but May might be Ethereum’s month. The cryptocurrency, which is more widely used than Bitcoin, hit $3,000 for the first time on Sunday, before passing $3,500 on Thursday. One year ago each token was worth $211.

The Ethereum blockchain was founded in 2013 by Canadian-Russian programmer Vitalik Buterin when he was just 19 years old. Buterin has over 333,000 Ether tokens – it’s possible to see other traders' portfolios if you have their wallet address – which at the current price values his holdings at over $1.1 billion.

The cryptocurrency now has a marketcap of over $400 billion. It’s been growing rapidly over the past year, mostly over anticipation for its relaunch as Ether 2.0, but this latest rally is tied to news last week that the European Investment Bank issued $120 million (€100 million) in bonds using Ethereum blockchain. DogeCoin also hit a new high of nearly 70 cents this week following its listing on eToro.

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While Bitcoin is the most well known cryptocurrency, costing $57,000 per token and with a market cap of over a trillion dollars, it’s almost entirely used as a speculative asset that people can buy or sell. Ether, a cryptocurrency built on the ethereum blockchain, is the most widely used digital currency in crypto trading. Underneath Bitcoin and Ethereum are tens of thousands of “altcoins,” similar to pennystocks, which are mostly traded using Ether. NFTs, tokens that authenticate ownership of a digital product, are notably bought and sold using Ether, not Bitcoin.

Coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum have grown substantially since the end of 2020 for many reasons, including big tech’s increasing embrace of cryptocurrency and the IPO success of Coin Base. Ethereum’s price has also grown in anticipation of Ether 2.0, which will change the fundamental way in which tokens are minted. Without getting lost in the technical mumbo jumbo – you can read here if you’re interested in the difference between Proof of Work and Proof of Stake – ether 2.0 promises to be more efficient, which will be good for traders and the planet.

Ethereum ‘yet to take off’ and is on track for $5,200 soon, say experts - CityAM

Ethereum’s startling run through $3,000 and above is far from over and could see Bitcoin’s main rival surpass $5,000 before long, according to expert analysts.

Ether, the native cryptocurrency for Ethereum and the second-largest digital asset by market cap, broke the $3,000 threshold earlier this week as it more than doubled its 2017 all-time high.

Yesterday, Vitalik Buterin’s brainchild reached up and planted a kiss on the cheek of $3,500 before gravity saw it slip down to $3,235. Today, it crawled back up to take a breather on a ledge of support around $3,360.

Many traders will no doubt be expecting ETH to hold track for a while and consolidate before making any determined effort to return to yesterday’s levels, and historical patterns would favour this notion.

However, experts at global exchange Kraken have a far more bullish narrative on the coin that could, one day, challenge Bitcoin’s 12-year dominance of cryptocurrency.

In its latest Market Recap Report, analysis by Kraken Intelligence suggests the ETH rally may still be in the early innings. They report that, even with the most-recent price appreciation, Ether dominance – its share of the total crypto market cap – is only coming close to the 18 per cent multi-year high achieved in mid-February, but remains far away from the +30 per cent achieved at the height of the 2017 rally.

Multi-billion dollar explosion

“The multi-billion dollar explosion in DeFi and this year’s NFT frenzy took place on applications built on Ethereum,” said Pete Humiston, Manager of Kraken Intelligence.

“Past performance does not indicate future prices, but the fact that Ethereum remains resolutely at the heart of bleeding-edge activity and innovation in the industry – just as it did in the previous bull market – suggests ETH has plenty of upside potential.

“With Ether held on exchanges at a 2.5-year low, and institutions warming up to the second largest crypto asset, as well as market participants having locked up more than four million ETH – 600k on Kraken’s secure on-chain staking service alone – ahead of the launch of Ethereum 2.0, the stars are aligning for another significant leg up for the ETH price.”

On page 17 of its 22-page dossier, the report charts “ETH: The Road to $5,200”, and uses a logarithmic regression graph to highlight potential future positions for Ethereum.

“As difficult as it will be for ETH to sustain double digit returns, the case could also be made that ETH still has plenty of upside,” the accompanying notes state.

“Since hitting a multi-year high of ~18 per cent around mid-February, ETH’s dominance has mean reverted down to 12 per cent and had largely trended sideways.

“The fact that ETH continues to climb higher while retaining the same market share suggests that ETH has yet to take off.”

Ethereum hits new record high above $3,400, extending its more than 300% rally this year

GUANGZHOU, China — Ether, the digital coin linked to the Ethereum blockchain, hit an all-time high of $3,456.57 as the cryptocurrency extends a rally that has seen its price gain over 350% this year.

The digital coin pared some of those gains in Tuesday morning trade in London and was trading at $3,369.74 at 11:20 a.m., according to CoinDesk data.

Interest in cryptocurrencies has surged over the past year with bitcoin continuously pushing new record highs. A number of factors including rising institutional interest and major companies such as Tesla buying the digital coin have been credited with its rise.

Bitcoin has been described as “digital gold” or a store of value in times of geopolitical tumult or financial market volatility as well as a hedge against inflation.

But Ethereum is different. It acts more as a platform that developers can build apps on. Ethereum is the name of the network or underlying blockchain technology, while ether is the digital currency used to power the platform.