The price of ether, the cryptocurrency powering the ethereum blockchain,has surged over the last week, approaching all-time highs set in 2016 as it hit its highest valuein nearly eight months. <\/p>\n
All told, ether prices have risen as much as 59% during the week, reaching $20.67 at roughly 10:44 UTC today after opening slightly above $13 on 25th February, CoinMarketCap figures show. <\/p>\n
At the time of reporting, ether had pulled back somewhat, but was still trading roughly 50% higher for the week at $19.54. <\/p>\n
Driving the increased demand was perhapsthe formallaunch of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, a new consortium focused on the technology that has drawn members from majorfinancial services, software companies and firms in the oil and gas industries. <\/p>\n
The groupaims to apply ethereum's fundamentalstoenterprise-grade blockchain implementations. <\/p>\n
The project's launch helped give ether a boost, market observers told CoinDesk. <\/p>\n
Tim Enneking, chairman of Crypto Asset Management, said of the development: <\/p>\n
\"The launch of the Alliance definitely fueled most of the price increase. Anything that increases the legitimacy and stability of an altcoin will cause its price to increase, sometimes dramatically.\" <\/p>\n
Petar Zivkovski, COO of leveraged digital currency trading platform Whaleclub, adopted a similar stance. <\/p>\n
Zivkovski saidthat the groupand its proposed solutions have \"re-ignited hope and legitimacy in ethereum, which was, until recently, mired in controversies and uncertainty.\" <\/p>\n
Still, ether's recent price gains at least in the public eye have been arguably overshadowed by those of bitcoin and dash, which have bothrecently hit all-time highs and seen major media coverage. <\/p>\n
Of the two, bitcoin has undoubtedlystolen the show in the last few weeks with string of fresh, all-time highs amid robust trading volume and bullish market sentiment. <\/p>\n
The digital currency has risen to several new highs in recent sessions, after failing to set a new record level for more than three years. It even hit parity with the per-ounce spot price of gold this week. <\/p>\n
Dash, by comparison, has surgedmore than 75% in the last week and upwards of 200% over the last month, CoinMarketCap data shows. The token hit an all-time high of $58.90 on 2nd March, after opening slightly north of $26 on 25th February. <\/p>\n
Market observers have offered numerous explanations for this rally, though no consensus on what is driving the push has emerged. <\/p>\n
Images via CoinMarketCap, Bitcoinity, Shutterstock <\/p>\n
DashEthermarketsPrices <\/p>\n
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Original post:<\/p>\n
Ether Prices Surge Past $20 to Approach All-Time Highs - CoinDesk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The price of ether, the cryptocurrency powering the ethereum blockchain,has surged over the last week, approaching all-time highs set in 2016 as it hit its highest valuein nearly eight months. All told, ether prices have risen as much as 59% during the week, reaching $20.67 at roughly 10:44 UTC today after opening slightly above $13 on 25th February, CoinMarketCap figures show. At the time of reporting, ether had pulled back somewhat, but was still trading roughly 50% higher for the week at $19.54. Continue reading