Crypto investors are betting that ether will continue to be used as the backbone for even more non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, as well as so-called smart contracts.
Experts predict that this wave of decentralized finance will become more prevalent in banking.
Ether, which now has a total value of about $575 billion for all its coins in circulations, has also narrowed the market cap gap with bitcoin, which is worth about $1.3 trillion.
In its latest earnings report after the closing bell Tuesday, Coinbase said that 22% of its third quarter trading volume was for ether, compared to 19% for bitcoin.
The persistence of inflation is benefiting ether and other cryptocurrencies, too.
The rise of bitcoin ETFs also could be good news for ethereum, because experts predict that similar ether ETFs could soon launch.
“Crypto now is a lot like the 1990s and the internet,” said Eric Satz, CEO and founder of Alto, an investment firm which offers a crypto IRA.
Investors need to proceed with caution,” Satz said, adding that he recommends investors have a crypto portfolio that’s made up mostly of bitcoin, ether and solana.
Ray Youssef, co-founder and CEO of Paxful, a crypto trading platform, has an even more cautious take.