ETH is comfortably the best-performing cryptocurrency among the top 20 by market cap today.
Ether has broken $3,000 for the very first time as its extraordinary bull run continues.
The surge — which saw ETH hit highs of $3,200.91 on Monday — has taken its market cap above $360 billion, eclipsing Bank of America and The Walt Disney Company.
It’s also resulted in Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin becoming a billionaire, as all of the ETH that’s stored in his main wallet is now worth more than $1 billion.
ETH is comfortably the best-performing cryptocurrency among the top 20 by market cap today — posting 24-hour gains of 7.37%, and seven-day gains of 25.24%.
Although Bitcoin has managed to break above $58,000, its value has only managed to rise by 8.85% over the past week.
As a result, it looks like a theme that dominated 2020 — Ether outperforming Bitcoin — is continuing well into 2021.
Over the past 12 months, ETH’s value has risen by 1,429%. That’s substantially more than the still-impressive gains of 564% that Bitcoin has seen since May 2020, just before its halving took place.
According to some pundits on Twitter, the latest surge means that Buterin has become the youngest self-made crypto billionaire. The Canadian programmer is just 27 years old.
What’s Next?
There’s little doubt that $3,000 is a psychologically significant milestone for Ether to conquer. Bullishness surrounding this cryptocurrency’s price has been heightened by a series of upgrades that are designed to make using the Ethereum blockchain much cheaper — something that should stem the tide of developers rushing to rival networks.
Crucially, the upgrades in the pipeline could end up reducing the amount of Ether that ends up entering circulation, and this reduced supply could contribute to upward price pressure.
ETH continues to steal the limelight in terms of dominance, too. The latest gains mean it now has a 15.8% share of the total market cap of all cryptocurrencies, with BTC languishing on 47.6%.
