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The price of ether (ETH), the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain network, reached record highs earlier on Tuesday.
Prices hit $ 1,439.33 around 12:00 UTC – slightly higher than the previous all-time high of $ 1,432.88 recorded on CoinDesk’s price index on January 13, 2018. Digital assets increased by nearly 12 % Tuesday to reach the new high.
Ether first hinted at an upcoming rally to all-time highs earlier this month, but fell victim to a brief market correction triggered by bitcoin’s pullback from $ 40,000 to $ 30,000 last week. .
The cryptocurrency broke past its previous bull market peak almost two months after bitcoin broke its record high price in December 2017 to hit a new high above $ 41,900 earlier this month.
As the ether has followed bitcoin on its journey to new, lifelong highs, it edged out the top cryptocurrency since the start of the year with a 92% gain. Bitcoin has risen 27% so far this year.
Ether is also up more than 1,000% since ETH’s initial public sale in 2015, according to Messari.
Ethereum is a blockchain for decentralized applications (dapps) such as prediction markets or trading venues. Dapps work the same as traditional apps, but inherit functionality from blockchain-based technologies such as censorship resistance.
The Ethereum blockchain was co-founded and originally described by Russian-Canadian developer Vitalik Buterin, who remains the project’s best-known personality.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is widely regarded as Ethereum’s best use case to date. DeFi marketplaces allow unauthorized and automated lending, trading and borrowing to anyone with an internet connection. The market recently topped some $ 22 billion in total locked-in value (TVL) – a similar measure to assets under management (AUM).
DeFi apps usually have their own tokens, usually based on Ethereum. This market saw a second bull run following the growing popularity of last summer.
In the long run, Ethereum proponents are positioning the blockchain project as a censorship-resistant base layer operating in the background of the Internet of tomorrow. This concept is commonly referred to as Web 3.0 and will link today’s social networks to integrated monetary systems.
Ethereum took an important step toward this goal on December 1 with the release of a new blockchain, the Beacon Chain, which brought in staking – pledge funds to support the network, rather than mining. This upgrade is one of three in a series of transitions aimed at upgrading the current Ethereum network to a blockchain capable of running an entire financial system.
EDIT (3:30 p.m. UTC, January 19, 2021): Fixed CoinDesk’s previous record figure for Ether and removed some other price references in second paragraph.
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