On Thursday, the world second-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market value, hit new highs of $2,774. This has broken the previous record for Ethereum as the digital currency has been on an upward trajectory for a while now.
There are a couple of factors contributing to the spike in Ethereum market value right now but the rise in value can largely be attributed to its business with the European Investment Bank. On Wednesday, the European Investment Bank issued its first ever digital bond on the Ethereum blockchain. This has fuelled the fires of speculation that suggest Ethereum is now fast gaining momentum with mainstream financial institutions.
This further instills confidence in investors that Ethereum is becoming the go to crypto for daily transactions as it continues to develop a symbiotic relationship with major financial institutions.
Ethereum is not the only crypto spiking right now
Ethereum’s record breaking rise in market value helped to spur on the market value of other alt coins as well. Most of these cryptos were trading higher on Thursday as a result of Ether’s rise. What many have come as a surprise to the average crypto investor was that Bitcoin actually saw a 16% downturn in market value, dropping to $54,471 from its earlier high of $65,000 in the same month. Bitcoin may have experienced a recent dip but its yearly performance so far has been nothing short of staggering as it has climbed by 90%.
It’s not only the big two that are experiencing a spike in market value though, as “meme coins” and alt coins continue to impress as well. More specifically, the rise in the market value of Dogecoin has been interesting. What started out as a literal “meme” coin has now become the 6th largest cryptocurrency in the industry right now. This is largely down to big name personalities like Elon Musk and Mark Cuban who have influenced the popularity of the coin. The rise of Dogecoin and other alt-coins has actually seen the Bitcoin’s market dominance drop to below 50% for the first time since 2018.
As alt-coins and the major cryptos remain on the rise, skeptics continue to advise caution against large-scale investments into these digital currencies. The skeptics still maintain, even in the face of market value spikes, that digital coins are merely a speculative bubble that are bound to burst. In particular, Stephen Isaacs, the chairman of the investment committee at financial consultants Alvine Capital said earlier this month that he believes Bitcoin is the biggest bubble of them all, and that bubble is going to burst. He cited a few reasons as to why he believes this to be true but they ultimately centered around the regulation of the digital currency and climate change.
