Ethereum is again on the path up towards $200, seeing its value reach $194.90 as the cryptocurrency market experiences a slight recovery. Overall, Ethereum is now up 5 percent this week, eclipsing Bitcoin in terms of weekly gains.
However, although Ethereum has posted almost 2 percent gains in the last 24 hours, it is still struggling to keep the pace with Bitcoin in the long run. Throughout 2019, Ethereum has been gradually losing ground to Bitcoin, falling from its 2019 high of 0.0412 BTC/ETH, down to just 0.0188 BTC/ETH today. But, depending on your perspective, it's not all bad.
So far, 2019 has been a good year for recent Ethereum investors. Having started the year at just $133.42, Ethereum has seen an impressive 46 percent growth. Similarly, according to ethernodes.org, the Ethereum network has gradually fleshed out in the last year and now has 9,298 nodes keeping the network running—up 12.4 percent in the last month.
The security of the Ethereum Network has also been on an uptrend since April 2019, with the network hash rate improving from 138 TH/s in March, up to today's value of 171 TH/s. Unlike Litecoin, which is seeing its hashrate drop after its recent halvening.
Additionally, developers are still fleshing out the network, creating new DeFi products. The latest innovation is Opyn, which announced yesterday that users can now trade Ethereum with up to six times leverage—in a non-custodial fashion, meaning they stay in control of their own funds. Use this power wisely.