Ether and Solana scale new peaks, while BTC awaits upgrade
02:59, 3 November 2021
Cryptocurrency exuberance showed no signs of abating anytime soon as alt-coins Ether and Solana scaled new peaks on Wednesday, while Polkadot eased off all-time high hit a day earlier.
Ether, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalisation, hit a fresh record high of $4,634.13 on Wednesday morning in Tokyo.
Data from cryptocurrency research firm The Block showed Ethereum’s hash rate rose to its highest ever. Hash rate refers to a blockchain network’s computing power that is used to process transactions and mine cryptocurrencies like ether and bitcoin.
Bitcoin Taproot upgrade awaited
Transactions on Ethereum’s network hit its highest in five months in October as ether miners collected $1.85bn in October, more than $1.72bn earned by bitcoin miners during the period, data from The Block showed.
On Wednesday, bitcoin rose 2.8% over the last 24 hours to $62,961.47. However bitcoin remained about 6% off its all-time high of $67,276.79 reached about a fortnight ago.
Bitcoin miners and HODLers now await the Taproot upgrade scheduled for mid-November which is aimed at unlocking bitcoin’s functionality to run smart contracts.
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Solana hits ATH
Solana was the biggest gainer among the top 10 cryptocurrencies on Wednesday as the alt-coin gained over 11% to hit a record high of $228.66 in early Asia trade.
The blockchain network known for its scalability was hot on the heels of stablecoin Tether to overtake the latter as the fourth largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalisation.
Solana’s market capitalisation stood at over $68bn compared with $70.5bn of Tether, as of Wednesday morning.
Ripple and Dogecoin over 60% away from ATH
Ripple and Dogecoin remained the furtherest away from their all-time highs among the top 10 cryptocurrencies, as of Wednesday morning.
Dogecoin eked out small gains to trade at $0.2715 in early Asia trade on Wednesday. The memecoin was over 62% below its record high hit in early May.
Ripple was over 66% away from its peak reached nearly four years ago in January 2018, according to CoinGecko. Ripple co-founders have an ongoing lawsuit against them on allegations that they raised over $1.3bn through an unregistered, ongoing digital asset securities offering.
Read more : Mining profits, volatility to push crypto prices higher: analysts
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