Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, hit an all-time high on Wednesday, catching up with bitcoin’s rally and riding on news of wider blockchain adoption. The ether token, which underpins the ethereum blockchain network, rose to as high as $4,643 today, breaching the previous day’s $4,600 and taking the week’s gains to more than 10%. Cryptocurrencies have followed bitcoin’s rally.
Bitcoin is up 117% this year, while Ether is up six-fold.
In the days since bitcoin, the world’s leading cryptocurrency by market cap hit its record high of $67,016.5 on Oct. 20, other tokens on the base layer of blockchain networks, known as Layer 1 networks, have gathered momentum. Bitcoin (BTC) was trading around $63,078 and is up about 117% this year, while Ether is up six-fold. Ryan Rabaglia, managing director and global head of trading at digital asset platform OSL, said, “Since the market reversal at the end of September, ether’s strength has been moving in stride with BTC and other majors.”
Ethereum continues to gain momentum from recent market activities.
The steady stream of positive news on cryptocurrency adoption by banks, growth of non-fungible tokens on virtual gaming platforms, the launch of bitcoin futures-based U.S. ETFs, and a need among investors for diversification in an uncertain interest rate environment have pushed several blockchain tokens, including bitcoin and Ether, higher since October. Smaller tokens are seeing an increased interest after Facebook Inc rebranded itself into Meta to focus on building the “metaverse,” a shared virtual environment. Earlier, Australia’s largest bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said it would become the country’s first to offer retail clients crypto services on Wednesday.
