Ethereum [ETH] finally broke the psychological barrier of $3K in May this year. The crypto-asset rose to a new all-time high above $3,200 today after a challenging week as it broke away from the consolidation camp. With this, Ethereum has not just flipped Bank of America [BOA] but has also surpassed payment processing giant, Paypal in terms of market cap.
After posting nine consecutive green candles, the market cap of the second-largest cryptocurrency surged to $365 billion. In contrast, BOA and PayPal’s valuations were found to be at $307.99 billion respectively.
ETH has established plenty of peaks this year. But the latest one was crucial since it came at the backdrop of a rather dull market movement. The trading volume has intensified over the past week that further pushed the coin to explore new heights.
The co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain, Vitalik Buterin has now officially become a crypto billionaire. If the 27-year old’s public Ether address has reached $1 billion on its balance after the token’s exponential growth on Monday.
Ethereum’s Price Explosion Has Found Substantial Backing
Ethereum’s on-chain fundamentals also turned bullish which further strengthened its upward momentum. The whales have continued to buy dips and the latest whale accumulation has backed the digital asset’s surge. In addition, the decline in the network’s gas fee has been somewhat of a relief for the ecosystem.
Moreover, the increasing active addresses, as well as transaction figures, have boosted Ethereum its rally to new highs.
Upon taking the derivatives realm into consideration, it was found that the open interest OI] across Ether options markets has significantly risen this year. The OI stood near $4 billion and the figure was up from a little $800 million at the beginning of 2020.
Also, the CME’s ETH futures market grew from an OI of $68m on the 1st of March well above to $370 million in just two months. The average open interest across Ether futures had soared to a fresh ATH of $8.6 billion recently.