ICOs, price changes, and new networks: keepin’ up with cryptocurrencies has gotten a lot more exciting in recent weeks.
Speculations regarding the effects of “the crypto bubble” are becoming more prevalent in the industry, with bitcoin, Ethereum’s currency ether, and Ripple’s digital token XRP all experiencing upward spikes in value—with ether reportedly trading at an all-time high of $250 on June 4.
The $250 tag is somewhat of a far cry from bitcoin’s valuations this year, which have moved steadily over $2,000—however, that number represents a nearly 3,000 increase in value from Jan. 2017.
The rise of all three currencies is being attributed to a myriad of factors pushing the “bubble” forward, including the recent enterprise interest in ICOs or Initial Coin Offerings (a process of fundraising via cryptocurrency that by nature offers unique benefits to investors and venture capitalists), while others maintain the “bubble” is not a bubble and is merely a result from the constant erosion of the fiat money system:
Lots of people saying $BTC & $ETH in bubble. They have NO idea what they are talking about. Need to understand why cyptos are rising…
— AIM Buster (@AIM_Buster) June 4, 2017
What’s becoming a more debated question in the industry is which cryptocurrency will emerge from the bubble as the “reigning” currency building the Internet of the future:
Lot’s of eyes on #ether & #Bitcoin. Bitcoin is at risk of no longer being the biggest digital currency https://t.co/CbNlOoSyKR pic.twitter.com/iwjHHWq57F
— Sam Maule (@sammaule) May 31, 2017
While enterprises–including banks such as JPMorgan Chase–have demonstrated an increased interest in Ethereum this year by joining efforts such as the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, it’s still unclear whether the corresponding cryptocurrency will keep the same level of attention.
At the time of this reporting, bitcoin is hovering around $2,600 according to data tracked by Coindesk, while ether has dropped from its high of $250 to trade at about $245.