Ethereum surpasses $3,000 record high

03 May 2021

Ethereum exceeded the $3,000 mark on Monday to hit a new all-time high.
The cryptocurrency increased 3% on the Bitstamp exchange to $3,051.99 at the time of writing, a rise of 300% for the year-to-date Reuters reports, surpassing the 95% rise in Bitcoin.
According to James Quinn, from Q9 Capital, Ether’s rally is catching up to Bitcoin’s gains at the end of last year.
In addition, it shows improvements to the Ethereum blockchain and a growing focus on decentralised finance (DeFi), referring to transactions made away from traditional banking.
"At first, the rally was really led by Bitcoin because as a lot of the institutional investors came into the space, that would be their natural first port of call," Quinn stated.
"But as the rally has matured over the last six months, you have DeFi and a lot of DeFi is built on Ethereum."
The introduction of Ether exchange-traded funds in Canada coupled with soaring demand for Ether wallets for non-fungible tokens’ transactions have also driven up the price.
The Reuters report goes on to add that the Ether/Bitcoin cross rate has increased over 100% in 2021 to reach a two and a half year high on Sunday.
"Surging DeFi volumes continue to push Ethereum prices higher as investors gain confidence in crypto and see Ethereum as a safe second-place asset," according to Jehan Chu, from Hong Kong blockchain venture capital firm Kenetic Capital.
The price rise has led Ethereum to overtake institutions including Bank of America and The Walt Disney Company in regard to total market capitalisation. 
As per data from tracking website, Infinite Marketcap, “the world’s largest smart contract-enabled layer-one has grown 24% on the week to $346.72 billion”, reports Cointelegraph.

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