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

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.

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