As investors await the launch of Ether futures contracts from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in the coming week, ETH continues to pull in constant gains.
Ether (ETH) has reached its record high of over $1,700 on the 5th of February around 10:30 a.m. ET. Data by CoinDesk revealed that the world’s second-largest crypto asset by market cap surged 11.2% to $1,743.
ETH Climbs Record High
Following its recent increase to reach a new record high, the price of ETH fell. At press time, ETH is trading at $1,664.84, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Ether has gained about 129% since the beginning of the year. With a market cap of nearly $191 billion, ETH has increased by 4.36% in its trading volume over the past 24 hours.
As of the 3rd of February, ETH had gained 126% since the start of January 2021. Raoul Pal, the Global Macro Investor and Real Vision Group CEO, said that he expects ETH to reach $20,000 by year-end.
The top two digital assets, Bitcoin and Ether, have both reached an all-time high in 2021. The world’s largest digital asset by market value, Bitcoin recorded its all-time high of nearly $42,000 in January. Precisely, BTC hit a fresh record high at $41,973 on the 8th of January. At the time, BTC had gained 40% in its year-to-date record.
The price of Bitcoin had dropped since then, however, and is currently trading at $39,390.50. Also, current records showed that the king coin has gained around 29% since the beginning of the year.
Investors Anticipate Launch of Ether Futures by CME
As investors await the launch of Ether futures contracts from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in the coming week, ETH continues to pull in constant gains. Trading in Ether futures is scheduled to begin on the 8th of February.
As CNBC stated in a report, some investors believe that futures and other crypto-focused derivatives will encourage institutional investors to invest in crypto.
Sachin Patodia, a partner at venture capital fund affiliated with FMR LLC, Avon Ventures, said:
“Bringing more financial instruments will bring more participants into the market. That probably is positive for the ether price.”
He further noted that Bitcoin is fuelling the increase in ETH:
“We’ve seen this pattern over many crypto cycles that we’ve gone through, where Bitcoin leads the way in price movement and then you see what we call the alt-coins get carried along.”
An analyst Simon Peters spoke to CNBC on the highly anticipated launch of ether futures from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The analyst said that the development by the CME may “spark” more ETH buying. Noting his reason, Peters said, “it provides a way for sophisticated investors to hedge their risk against positions that they may be holding on the underlying asset.”
Also, investors said that the major upgrade on the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum 2.0 is another factor fuelling the ETH surge.
Notably, Grayscale recently added another 24,800 ether to its Ethereum Trust.
Ibukun is a crypto/finance writer interested in passing relevant information, using non-complex words to reach all kinds of audience. Apart from writing, she likes to see movies, cook, and explore restaurants in the city of Lagos, where she resides.
