Ether, a cryptocurrency which has shown significant promise for its strong technology and compelling use cases, recently reached a fresh, all-time high.
The digital currency rose to as much as $1,430.81 at 19:09 UTC, according to CoinMarketCap.
At this point, the cryptocurrency had climbed roughly 15% in the last 24 hours, additional CoinMarketCap figures show.
The price of Ether had pulled back slightly at the time of report, trading at $1,421.19.
[Ed note: Investing in cryptocoins or tokens is highly speculative and the market is largely unregulated. Anyone considering it should be prepared to lose their entire investment.]
Ethereum's Promise
Several analysts spoke to the potential offered by Ether and its platform, Ethereum.
"Ethereum is currently the most promising blockchain," said Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst for social trading platform eToro, emphasizing that it has "by far the most projects being developed on it."
The Ethereum platform has "3x more transactions than bitcoin," noted Marius Rupsys, a figure that shows its popularity.
The use case for Ether, which powers the Ethereum platform, is "simply far more compelling that the use case for BTC," said Tim Enneking, managing director of Crypto Asset Management.
Key Role In ICOs
Market analysts also emphasized the key role that Ether is playing in ICOs when explaining why the digital currency's recent price increases.
"There are a large number of ERC20 ICOs launching on Ethereum this month, as the ERC20 framework makes launching tokens simply and smooth," said Chris Keshian, co-founder of the Apex Token Fund, a tokenized crypto fund-of-funds.
"These ICOs result in substantial raises, and result in an increase in ETH prices, as the raises are garnered in ETH," he added.
Instant messaging service Telegram is planning an ICO, which will probably raise more than $1 billion, noted Rupsys.
"Many of these funds will come in ether," he stated, which "might have positive effect to ether's price."
Because of all these positive developments, Ether is a "safe haven," said Iqbal Gandham, UK managing director for eToro.
Disclosure: I own some Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Ether.