The ethereum price raced to an all-time high on Friday, fueling speculation that the second largest cryptocurrency will crack the $500 mark before the end of the year.
Ethereum Price Eyes $500
Since breaking past resistance at $310 two weeks ago, the ethereum price has embarked on a seemingly-unstoppable rally. On Thursday, the ethereum price surpassed the $400 mark for the first time since June. Before long it had reached a new all-time high, confirming the recent prediction of billionaire hedge fund manager Mike Novogratz, who forecasted that it would soon reach this milestone en route to a year-end target of $500.
ethereum price
ETH Price Chart | Source: TradingView
The dramatic surge continued on Friday, as the ethereum price posted another double-digit percentage increase, bringing it to a new high-water mark of $465 on cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex. Ethereum now has a market cap of $44.8 billion, raising its market share to 16.7 percent from 13.9 percent one week ago.
Korea Leads the Rally
As is often the case, South Korean exchanges are leading the rally. ETH/KRW is trading at an approximate premium of $10 over comparable USD and BTC pairs. Altogether, ethereum has more than $2 billion in 24-hour trading volume, ranking it third among all cryptocurrencies.
ethereum price
Source: CoinMarketCap
It is not immediately clear what is fueling the ethereum price rally, although it could be tied to investor relief that the cryptocurrency will not initiate a contentious hard fork to recover the 513,774.16 ether — worth $238 million at present — that are currently frozen by the Parity multi-signature wallet bug. The increase could also stem from a recent analysis that found the ethereum network is processing more transactions than all other cryptocurrency networks combined.
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One of the more notable aspects of ethereum’s day-over-day performance is that it has come at the expense of neither bitcoin — which held steady for the day — nor bitcoin cash, which has joined ethereum in its double-digit climb. Together, these rallies have carried the total cryptocurrency market cap to a record $263 billion, which makes the total value of cryptocurrency units in circulation greater than Australia’s M1 (narrow money) supply..