Ethereum Is On Fire Right Now!

Ether, the digital currency of the Ethereum blockchain, has reached an all-time high of $425.55 on Thursday, marking an increase of more than 5,000 percent since the start of the year, informs CNBC.

ETH is in Top 4 and it’s here to stay

This also means that the market valuation of Ethereum has moved closer to the $40 billion mark, taking out seven of the 10 largest cryptocurrencies in the market combined. Only Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash are having a larger market cap.

Two major markets, South Korea and the US, are responsible for the latest demand of Ether. South Korea’s Bithumb, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world by trading volume, registered early 15 percent of the digital currency trades over the past 24 hours, says CCN.

Following Ether’s trend, other altcoins, including Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and Monero have recorded sizable gains. However, Ether is the one going through a magnificent phase.

To lighten things up, Frank Schuil, the CEO at Safello, one of Europe’s largest bitcoin brokerages and wallet platforms, revealed that the digital currency of the Ethereum blockchain has been processing more transactions on a daily basis than the entire cryptocurrency market. Yes, with Bitcoin included, with makes the stats look insane.

Are there any chances of catching up with Bitcoin?

With over 544,000 transactions, that covers up nearly 52 percent of the cryptocurrency market’s transactions, Ether is coming hard from behind. To get how the situation stands right now, find out that Bitcoin average processes 270,000 transactions per day.

Since the execution of the Byzantium hard fork in October, Ether has gained in popularity. Donald McIntyre, the founder of Etherplan, also puts the Ether demand rise on the fact that the Bitcoin network has increased its transaction fees. Wallet platforms such as Blockchain and Coinbase recommend a fee of around $0.8 for non-SegWit transactions, which is around 9x more than the recommended fee for Ethereum transactions.