As Ethereum manifests strength and continues to surge, there seems to be growing interest in the second-largest cryptocurrency. According to data from Google Trends, the search volume for the word “Ethereum” has hit an all-time high as the cryptocurrency continues to rise in price.
Ethereum made some giant strides in 2020 with the price reaching over $700 for the first time since the second quarter of 2018. In 2021, Ethereum crossed $1000 for the first time since the end of January 2018 following the 2017 bull run during which it reached an all-time high price of $1,329.
The rise in the price of Ethereum has been attributed to the rapid growth of the network, driven mainly by the DeFi ecosystem. DeFi received a significant boost in 2020 with many investors running to yield farming with DeFi tokens for some quick profits. Although the growth led to the problem of exorbitant fees, it has helped to push Ethereum to new highs with a lot more room to grow further.
The massive buying of the asset by the world’s leading digital assets manager Grayscale could have also contributed to this rally. As of the end of 2020, Grayscale had bought at least 5% of all Ethereum mined within the year. In fact, it makes up the second largest percentage of assets in Grayscale’s DLC Fund.
As Bitcoin price has risen to new highs and many will consider it too expensive to buy, the recently rising interest in Ethereum could be an attempt by investors to not miss the top two cryptocurrencies should a real bull market be in force. Ethereum is only roughly $100 away from its all-time high price at the time of writing this article.
ETHUSD Chart By TradingView
Other altcoins have started surging too, notably the top ten including XRP which has been struggling recently due to the lawsuits. Bitcoin is also still skyrocketing and close to surpassing $40k. This makes it unclear if another altcoin season has commenced or it is just a short pump that will be lost soon as Bitcoin continues its climb.
