It’s the second most valuable crypto in the world and it could even help with Facebook’s new plans for an online space that will take over smartphones.
Cryptocurrency ethereum has skyrocketed to an all time high with the coin hitting a value of $US4470 ($A6015).
The surge pushed the overall crypto market to valuation of $US2.7 trillion ($A3.6 trillion), according to CoinMarketCap, with ethereum accounting for about $US530 billion ($A712 billion), making it the second most valuable crypto in the world.
Ethereum’s value, which shot up 4 per cent in just 24 hours, is being led by its technology. It is expected to be used in future for the creation of any metaverse – an online world where people can game, work and communicate in a virtual environment, often using a virtual reality headset that has recently become more widely known due to Facebook.
The social media giant, now known as Meta, has announced plans to create its own metaverse.
Ethereum’s tech is also being used to sell digital art called NFTs along with creating decentralised finance apps, which is expected to shake up the finance sector.
Some experts have predicted ethereum could continue to smash records by hitting the $US10,000 ($A13,000) mark by Christmas and jump to $US50,000 ($A67,000) by 2030.
Ethereum’s huge rise has seen it add 1000 per cent to its price since this time last year.
While the most popular coin bitcoin now sits around $US67,000 ($A90,000), its ethereum that is the crypto to watch, according to some.
“[Bitcoin] just doesn’t have the network intensity that ethereum does,” former Goldman Sachs executive and crypto investor Raoul Pal, told his subscribers on YouTube.
“Bitcoin has nothing like that going on.”
Tony Sycamore, APAC market analyst at City Index, said his “bullish” forecast for ethereum was pushing towards $A5200.
He said bitcoin was trading higher this morning at $A63,117, up 3.5 per cent, after the US Treasury indicated the possibility of a central bank-issued digital currency issued by commercial banks and overseen by regulators.
“Technically, providing bitcoin holds above the support at $A55,000/$A53,000, a bullish bias remains in place, and the expectation is for retest and break of the $A67,000 high before a push towards $A75,000 into year-end,” he added.
The UK’s financial regulator has warned that people should be prepared to lose all their money when investing in crypto.
Originally published as Ethereum hits record new high of $US4470
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