The price of ethereum (ether) has hit a new all-time high on Wednesday after rising in value by more than 20 per cent since the start of the week.
The cryptocurrency peaked at $1,824 (£1,317), according to CoinMarketCap’s price index, having traded at around $1,500 on Sunday.
It is the latest in a series of significant price jumps for ethereum, having started the year below $900. As recently as March, ethereum was valued at just above $100, after falling from a peak of around $1,300 in January 2018.
Some cryptocurrency analysts remain bullish about the near-term price of ethereum, though advise any potential investors to be cautious due to the market’s extreme volatility.
Konstantin Anissimov, executive director of London-based cryptocurrency exchange CEX.IO, said ethereum’s rapid rise means it could be just a matter of days before it breaches the $2,000 mark.
“The price is definitely advancing more rapidly than anyone has expected, as ethereum is seeing levels that were expected to see by mid-Q2, rather than now,” he said.
“An earlier prediction I made said that it will hit $2,200 by the end of Q2, or 30 June. It seems that this might happen even earlier. Of course, there is never certainty with these things – only a decent chance, so we advise investors and traders to be cautious.”
Ethereum’s latest price rally has mirrored that of bitcoin, which hit a new all-time high on Tuesday.
As the world’s two most valuable cryptocurrencies, the price movements of bitcoin and ethereum tend to reflect the wider sentiment towards the rest of the market.
Over the last week, every single one of the top 75 most valuable cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap have risen in value, with some experiencing gains of close to 250 per cent over the last seven days.
This has helped boost the combined market capitalisation of all cryptocurrencies, which also saw a record high on Wednesday morning of $1.42 trillion – putting it ahead of Alphabet (Google) in terms of overall market value.