Ether Cryptocurrency Price Rises to New Record High at Over $3,600 as Investors Divert Focus From Bitcoin

Ether is up more than 385 percent this year, compared with 96 percent for Bitcoin.

By Reuters | Updated: 7 May 2021 11:17 IST

Ether Cryptocurrency Price Rises to New Record High at Over $3,600 as Investors Divert Focus From Bitcoin

Photo Credit: Reuters

Ether's continous growth has diverted focus of investors from its main rival Bitcoin

Highlights

Ether reached a record high of $3,616.10 on Thursday
The cryptocurrency token is traded over the Ethereum blockchain
Ether topped $3,000 for the first time on Monday

Ether, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, on Thursday extended a breakaway rally to a new record high of $3,616.10 (roughly Rs. 2,66,400), gathering momentum as investors diverted focus from its main rival.

On the Bitstamp Exchange, Ether was last up about 4.0 percent at $3,568.92 (roughly Rs. 2,62,900). Bitcoin was down 0.3 percent at $57,353.03 (roughly Rs. 42,25,000) and about 11 percent below its record intraday high at $64,895.22 (roughly Rs. 47,80,600) set on April 14.

Ether, the token traded over the Ethereum blockchain, topped $3,000 (roughly Rs. 2,21,000) for the first time on Monday. It is up more than 385 percent this year, compared with 96 percent for Bitcoin.

Dogecoin Values Surges as Much as 50 Percent as Crypto Mania Continues

The rise is in part a spillover from flows into Bitcoin, which has grown in stature as big-name investors from Elon Musk's carmaker Tesla to Wall Street investor Stanley Druckenmiller bought in.

"Ethereum has been able to maintain its positive momentum, a crushing series of all-time highs in the past week," said Konstantin Anissimov, executive director at cryptocurrency exchange CEX.IO.

"The current all-time high has reignited the ambitious sentiment that Ethereum may eventually flippen (supplant) Bitcoin by market capitalisation in the near future."

Also, a technical adjustment called EIP (Ethereum improvement proposal) 1559, expected to reduce the supply of Ethereum and go live in July, has provided a lift for the digital currency.

Still, there is a speculative frenzy going on in the asset class. Joke cryptocurrency Dogecoin is up by 24,000 percent over the last 12 months and is now the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation.

© Thomson Reuters 2021

We dive into all things Apple — iPad Pro, iMac, Apple TV 4K, and AirTag — this week on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Cryptocurrency Prices across Indian exchanges

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.