Ether, the second-biggest cryptocurrency, shot past the record high of $3,017 on Monday, boosted by reports that a digital bond sale on the ethereum blockchain network was in the works.
Ether, which extended last week's rally despite a slide in bitcoin prices, was worth only $207 just one year ago.
The cryptocurrency was up 2 percent on the Bitstamp exchange on Monday. The rising star in the crypto world is already up more than 300 percent for the year so far, compared with a 95 percent increase in bitcoin prices.
EIB Moots 100-million Euro Digital Bond
While both Bitcoin and Dogecoin rose to all-time highs last month, it seems it is the turn of ethereum now to scale new heights.
The latest spurt in ether prices was due to an announcement that the European Investment Bank (EIB) was planning to issue a two-year 100-million euro digital bond. At the same time an upgrade of the affiliated Ethereum blockchain also contributed to the upward momentum of ether.
Monday's jump took the cryptocurrency's market capitalization to close to $350 billion.
Compared with the more popular bitcoin, ether still remains the most widely used digital currency in crypto trading. It is the digital currency that enables facilitates transactions on the ethereum blockchain.
Bitcoin Prospects Declining
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported on Monday that bitcoin's domination of total cryptocurrency market value is declining. While bitcoin had accounted for 70 percent of the cryptocurrency market, it now holds only about 46 percent. The total cryptocurrency market is estimated to be worth $2.3 trillion.
The fear of further slump comes at a time when governments across the world including the United Kingdom, China, India among others are creating regulatory bodies to start their own legal cryptocurrency.
The slump in Bitcoin's market value also comes at a time when Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates gave a statement to the Express UK early this week that he bets on the complete collapse of Bitcoin as the transactions do nothing to change the world and is one innovation that the world can survive without.
"Ethereum is rising and not much seems to be in its way," said Edward Moya, a senior market analyst at Oanda Corp., according to Bloomberg. The a analyst added that other cryptocurrencies are also seeing fresh interest.
