Ethereum Price at Highest Level Since May 2018

Ethereum is now trading for above $646, according to data from Nomics, a yearly high—and its highest level since May 2018.

The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap after Bitcoin, ETH is up nearly 10% in the last day and 33% in the last month. In the course of this year, its perceived value has increased by 355%.

Indeed, at the start of the year, the asset was trading at under $140 and sunk to a yearly low of around $110 in March, as the COVID pandemic led to shutdowns of world economies.

Those days are in the rearview mirror. Ethereum has, in percentage terms, performed better than Bitcoin this year. And Bitcoin has hardly been slouching, just today passing the $21,000 mark for the first time.

Unlike Bitcoin, Ether is still quite far removed from its all-time high of $1,392. That was reached on January 12, 2018, as Bitcoin was slowly coming off its December 2017 price spike.

During that 2017 period, CME and Cboe both introduced Bitcoin futures trading, which may have helped perpetuate the bullish price movement—at least in the short term. Just today, CME announced Ethereum futures trading, which is slated to begin in February 2021.

Given the movement in the last few months, the price could be just about anywhere at that point.