Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, soared to a record above $4,400 Friday on bullish sentiment surrounding an upgrade to the Ethereum network and rival Bitcoin’s recent rally to a high of its own.
Digital assets gained 3.5% to $4.403.93, surpassing the May record of $4.379.62. Binance coin and Solana, smaller tokens, rallied. According to CoinGecko.com data, Ether now has a value of $520 billion.
Ether’s latest milestone comes as the digital token has far outperformed Bitcoin throughout this year with a sixfold increase amid surging retail and institutional investor interest in the space. Bitcoin’s value has increased by 40% in this month and is now at an all-time high of nearly $67,000, thanks to the U.S. debut of the first Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.
Ethereum Network’s affiliated Ethereum Network uses Ether as its currency. It is the main blockchain that powers many decentralized applications. Following a successful upgrade to speed up the process and make it more efficient, this week’s boost was even greater.
“On-chain activity metrics for Ethereum appear to have found support and are reaching multi-month highs,” said Sean Farrell and Will McEvoy, digital asset strategists with Fundstrat in a report Thursday. After a May decline, measures including transactions rate, new addresses, and active addresses show strong growth, according to the strategists.
—Joanna Ossinger, Sunil Jagtiani with assistance
