ETHER HITS RECORD HIGH WITH SURGE IN ETHEREUM BLOCKCHAIN USE

The value of ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin, rose to record high levels of about $4,400 (about £3,200) on Friday, in line with upgrades and surge in use of the ethereum blockchain network.

Currently valued at about $4,350, the cryptocurrency has grown in value by more than 7 per cent in the last 24 hours, according to Coin Market Cap.

In the process of touching the mark of $4,400, ether breached its previous top value of $4,380 which it set on 12 May.

The cryptocurrency has grown in value by over 5 per cent within a week and by nearly 50 per cent over the last month.

Ether works on the ethereum blockchain network that runs thousands of applications, such as NFTs and decentralised finance.

The current surge in the digital token’s value seems to follow a successful upgrade to the blockchain designed to make it faster and more energy efficient.

“A lot of the time, with these technological upgrades and bits and pieces, this is news that fuels the beast, it’s fodder for people to say, ‘This is what we bought in for,’ and as soon as it starts moving, it’s like a red rag to a bull, people just go and buy,” Chris Weston, research head at Melbourne-based broker Pepperstone, told Reuters.

Several cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, cardano, and solana, have also risen in value between 3 per cent and 6 per cent compared to their value a day earlier.

Meme-based tokens dogecoin and its spinoff currency shiba inu have experienced the biggest growth in the last week with the former surging by over 17 per cent, while the latter has seen a meteoric surge in value of over 160 per cent.

The surge is also in line with the growth of the overall crypto market, which has risen in value by more than 4 per cent over the last 24 hours, currently valued at over $2.6 trillion.

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