Reasons Behind Ethereum's Price Rise
The price of Ethereum (ETH) has surged by 2400% year-to-date, from approximately $8 in the beginning of the year to beyond $200, pushing its market capitalization to around $18.5 billion. The rising price of Ethereum isn’t an exception. In fact, almost all cryptocurrencies are seeing an unprecedented rise in price.
Given distinct advantages such as security and energy efficiency, Ethereum will be switched from proof-of-work to a new consensus algorithm under development, called Casper based on proof-of-stake mechanism, sometime later in 2017, as per Ethereum Foundation. This means that anyone holding the core cryptocurrency (ether) can be a validator, and this may explain part of the demand for it.
Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) are growing in popularity, and some of the most successful firms are raising funds via a digital token built on the Ethereum platform. In early April, Blockchain Capital, a venture capital firm investing in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, successfully raised $10 million in a record six hours for its first digital liquid venture fund called Blockchain Capital III Digital Liquid Venture Fund, LP. The Singapore-registered fund raised capital via a digital token built on the Ethereum platform. Melonport is another example.
