Ether’s Market Value Surges $20 Billion In One Day While Bitcoin Prices Slow-Here’s Why

Ether’s Market Value Surges $20 Billion In One Day While Bitcoin Prices Slow-Here’s Why

Topline

Ether, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency, is flirting with new highs Tuesday thanks to booming institutional adoption as its larger rival, bitcoin, struggles to pare back massive losses.

Ether, the world's second largest cryptocurrency, has surged about 30% over the past week alone.



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Key Facts





As of 4:30 p.m. EST, the price of ether has surged 14% over the past 24 hours, settling at about $1,400 per token after briefly surpassing an all-time high of about $1,433 from January 2018, according to crypto data firm CoinMarketCap.





Over the past week, the cryptocurrency underpinned by the ethereum blockchain network has surged more than 28%, adding $20 billion to its market value (currently $160 billion) while bitcoin prices–still 10% off their peak after crashing last week–edged up just 5%.







That's outpaced gains among other top tokens, including Ripple's XRP, litecoin and bitcoin cash, which are up 1%, 14% and 11% in the past week, respectively.





Ether's surge has been fueled in part by an explosion of decentralized finance