Ethereum, or ether for short, hit a new record high Monday of about $3,200. Ether prices have more than quadrupled in 2021, soaring 325%. Bitcoin has had a great run too this year, doubling in value.
The total value of all Ethereum in circulation is now about $367 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin’s (XBT) market value is $1.1 trillion.
Bitcoin has soared this year in part due to increased adoption by Corporate America. Musk’s Tesla (TSLA) and software firm MicroStrategy (MSTR) have bought bitcoin to hold on their balance sheets. Digital payments giants Square (SQ) and PayPal (PYPL) are letting users buy, sell and hold crypto, too.
But Ethereum has enjoyed an even bigger surge than bitcoin because it is the cryptocurrency of choice for the purchases of many non-fungible tokens, or NFTs — which have taken the art and broader collectibles world by storm.
One NFT piece by digital artist Beeple sold for nearly $70 million at a Christie’s auction earlier this year. Baseball…