Ethereum has enjoyed a strong showing since the start of 2018. The cryptocurrency has regularly reached new highs and has nearly doubled in value over the course of the young year.
Ethereum has climbed to as high as $1,417 since the start of the year and while it has trickled back down slightly from that record market, the cryptocurrency has enjoyed as much as an 87 percent increase in its value since January 1.
At the beginning of 2018, Ethereum was valued at about $755. It crossed the $1,000 barrier on January 4 and hasn’t looked back, quickly rising in price by hundreds of dollars. Ethereum currently enjoys the second-highest market cap of all cryptocurrencies—trailing only Bitcoin—with more than $120 billion currently invested in the digital coin.
Ethereum’s success so far this year may not come as a total surprise. The cryptocurrency managed to grow exponentially over the course of 2017 and became a popular alternative to Bitcoin. The Ethereum blockchain went from handling about 5,000 transactions per day at the start of the year to more than one million per day by December of last year.
Experts told International Business Times that Ethereum was likely to continue to grow during 2018 but warned of volatility in the price. While its climb has primarily been upward, the cryptocurrency has experienced regular dips in price as well—though rarely enough to spark panic of the coin’s value collapsing.
The coin has already blown past the $1,000 goal set for it by tech investment firm Profit Confidential . The target of $5,000 set by InvestingPR, which suggested Ethereum could also overtake Bitcoin, could be in play if the cryptocurrency continues to grow as it has so far this year.
