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Ether It continued its upward march on Tuesday as the price of bitcoin took a breather.
The second-largest cryptocurrency was last up 2.5% at $65,868, according to Coin Metrics. It previously rose as high as $3,828.81, a January 2022 high. bitcoin fell back about 3% after that reached an all-time high above $69,000.
“ETH has significant momentum because it is widely used as a gateway to many meme coins and DeFi platforms that have been emerging thanks to bitcoin's continued bull run,” said Philipp Zentner, CEO of crypto infrastructure protocol Li. .Fi. “As has often happened in the past, Bitcoin approaching record levels has caused a trickle-down effect of adoption to other parts of the ecosystem.”
With bitcoin up 19% last week, meme coins have gained about 175% in the same period, according to CoinGecko. Analysts point to them as evidence that retail investors, who have been absent during much of the recent cryptocurrency rally, are beginning to return to the cryptocurrency market.
Ether coin, dogecoin and Shiba Inu - 5D
Decentralized finance tokens also rose nearly 14%, NFT coins rose 20%, and the smart contract sector gained 17%. Layer 1 tokens, which include bitcoin, ether, and the Solana token, are up 21% as a group.
"As capital moves towards altcoins, it would make sense that ETH will likely continue to make profits, even if they are not as large as coins, including shiba inu coin, dog hat, Decision or others," Zentner said.
As one of the two so-called top cryptocurrencies, the performance of ether is usually lower than that of bitcoin. On Monday, ether rose 5% compared to bitcoin's 9%.
However, it is also getting a boost from a number of catalysts, including the recent rally in bitcoin and technology stocks, as well as a network technical upgrade this month and the possibility that spot ether ETFs will soon be available for trading. in the US up 65% over the year compared to bitcoin's 58% after its recent surge.
"Given the relative difference in market capitalization of ether and bitcoin, investors will likely see additional upside growth potential in ETH relative to bitcoin in a world where both ETFs exist and are collectively viewed as an asset class that will have allocations." investment advisors and wealth managers," said David Wells, CEO of Enclave Markets.
