Ethereum Crosses $700 for the First Time Since 2018
Ethereum’s native currency has broken $700 for the first time in over two years. The asset has followed Bitcoin’s violent move upwards over the Christmas period.
Ethereum just crossed $700. It’s the highest price the asset has traded for since May 2018.
Ethereum Back Above $700
The digital currency has performed well over the last few weeks, following the launch of Ethereum 2.0 on Dec. 1. Its value has soared by around 12% today.
The main factor for this might be the Christmas fervor surrounding Bitcoin: in the last three days, the original crypto has seen a 16% jump in price. It hit an all-time high of $25,000 on Boxing Day and has been moving upwards since then. It’s now trading at $26,796.
ETH often follows BTC’s price movements. When BTC looks bullish, ETH and other digital currencies tend to draw liquidity soon after. Unlike BTC, though, ETH is still 50% short of its all-time high price.
The ETH:BTC ratio is currently 0.025 (back in January 2018, it topped out at around 0.1).
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Nonetheless, signs remain positive for Ethereum believers. Following exponential growth for DeFi in 2020, the total value locked in Ethereum-native protocols like Aave, Synthetix, and Uniswap is currently at $13.3 billion, and there are now over 1 million users.
If DeFi continues to grow on Ethereum at the same pace in 2021, its native currency may well follow suit.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this feature owned ETH and UNI, among a number of other cryptocurrencies.