FX.co ★ BTC propels rally of other altcoins

Bitcoin is viewed as the powerhouse of the crypto market. The dazzling rally of the number one cryptocurrency opens the door to historic highs for other digital currencies. Ethereum followed suit and hit a multi-year high. Interestingly, this second popular cryptocurrency was invented by Vitalik Buterin, the Canadian programmer of the Russian origin. In early January, Ethereum jumped to the highest mark since May 2018, passed the level of $825 with confidence, and conquered the peak of $1,000. So, Ethereum logged an intraday gain of over 13%. The second largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization clicked into gear in December 2020 following a launch of Ethereum 2.0 phase zero. This major blockchain upgrade does not have the mining feature as it has been replaced with staking. With this new feature, investors who send their coins to a deposit contract can obtain a reward in return, thus passively increasing their numbers of coins.

Nevertheless, despite its growing popularity, Ethereum is not able to compete with bitcoin. On January 3, 2021, the crypto king topped $34,000 per token. On January 7, 2021, it smashed through $40,000 that is an absolute record ever. Experts do not rule out that the leading cryptocurrency could soar as high as $100,000 per coin by the end of the year.