Move over Bitcoin. The world’s second-most valuable cryptocurrency is soaring to record highs.
Ethereum, or Ether for short, has seen it’s price quadruple this year. On Monday Ether topped 3,000 for the first time ever. That’s a more than 350% gain this year.
“I started seeing and feeling it in January and this has just been a constant.”
Some experts like entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk say ether is taking off, as more young investors look to diversify their crypto investments.
“The Robin Hood phenomenon. Right? The reddit community, like every 17, 19, 20- to 14-year-old thinks in investing terms,” Vaynerchuk explained.
Another reason behind ether’s rising popularity? Ether is also the main currency of choice used to buy non-fungible tokens, known as NFTs.
These are digital assets popular in the arts and sports collectibles world.
And more investors like Vaynerchuk are jumping into the NFT mania.
On Wednesday, Vaynerchuk launched his own digital art collection called “Veefriends” linked to Ethereum.
“i’s going to use this platform the way the transformers and thunderclaps used toys, the way that Pokémon used playing cards. I’m using the medium of NFT to stand up my intellectual property.”
And while some financial experts warn that just like Bitcoin did in 2017–
Ether may have risen too much too fast, and a major plunge is possible.
“You have to be careful who you trust in cryptocurrency. There’s still a tremendous opportunity to make money on crypto and I’m still gonna take advantage of that,” Brandon Larsen, Ethereum investor said.
Ethereum has a combined market value of almost 400-billion for all its coins currently in circulation.