Ethereum sets new all-time price high as crypto market cap nears $3 trillion

Ethereum reached a new all-time price high of US$4,766 earlier today, flying past its previous all-time high record of US$4,634 set five days ago, according to CoinGecko data.

Fast facts

• The world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market value has been on a record run since late last month. On Oct. 28, Ethereum’s price climbed to US$4,416 for the first time. The rally follows the network’s implementation of its Altair upgrade. Separately, a Finder report said the price of Ethereum is expected to reach US$5,114 by the end of this year and surge to US$50,788 by 2030.

• Ethereum’s new record comes after Bakkt Holdings, which listed on the New York Stock Exchange last month, announced that it is expanding its crypto offerings to include Ethereum, according to a press release last week.

• While this is positive news for Ethereum, one industry watcher says that as Bitcoin nears its own all-time high of US$67,276, it is bringing Ethereum up with it. “What we’re currently seeing with Ethereum, we cannot separate from what we see with Bitcoin — we’re going through a period of kind of accumulation, which is interesting at these price levels,” Ben Caselin, head of research at crypto exchange AAX, told Forkast.News. “Once supply shock kicks in, I think within this month we can see Bitcoin go above US$80K and I think actually Ethereum can touch US$6K by the end of the month.” Bitcoin was trading at US$66,035 at press time, according to data from CoinGecko.

• Altcoin Solana has also been on a price tear, gaining almost 90% in the past 30 days to reach a new all-time high of US$259 over the weekend, according to data from CoinGecko, bumping the smart contract-enabled token into the third position in the crypto top 10 by market cap. This price action follows an announcement last week that Solana Ventures, crypto exchange FTX and Lightspeed Venture Partners are partnering to invest US$100 million on Web 3.0 gaming projects built on the Solana blockchain.

• Caselin says the timing is perfect for this announcement. “Of course, this fits the whole meta narrative that’s kind of spurred on by Facebook’s change of its corporate name,” he said, adding that Solana isn’t the only altcoin to keep an eye on at the moment. “Over the coming weeks, we should also be paying attention to Polkadot, which has been kind of a slow mover over the past few months and is now really breaking new all-time highs.” Polkadot reached a new all-time high last week of US$54.98, and was trading just below that at US$53.25 at press time, according to data from CoinGecko.

• Meanwhile, Kadena, a cryptocurrency created by former J.P. Morgan executives, has been soaring. Over the last seven days, it surged over 180%, reaching an all-time high of US$25.34 earlier today, according to CoinGecko data. The world’s largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin has also surged in the past 24 hours by over 5%. Interestingly, J.P. Morgan renewed its Bitcoin price prediction last week and pegged Bitcoin’s fair value at US$35,000, over 40% less than its current trading price.

• Shiba Inu’s long drawn rally, however, has cooled off as the memecoin dropped from seventh to 11th position on the leaderboard as per market cap. Over the past 24 hours, Shiba Inu’s price has decreased by over 7%, according to CoinGecko.

• As altcoins continue to rally, the total crypto market capitalization has increased by over 3% in the last 24 hours and is less than US$22 billion away from reaching US$3 trillion, according to CoinGecko.