The increasingly popular crypto-project Ethereum has had a strong 2017, increasing in value by more than 2,700 percent since the beginning of the year.
On January 1, 2017, Ethereum was trading at just under $8. On Wednesday, it hit a record high of $227.26, a meteoric 2,747.9 percent rise since the beginning of the year.
I wrote about the Ethereum project on January 3, when I described it as “a decentralized ‘world computer,’ has the potential to completely change the way that people communicate, work, and exchange over the Internet.” The Ethereum project is equal parts a cryptocurrency, programming platform, and a decentralized computer network. Those ingredients serve to create the foundation of a project that will allow developers to create censorship-resistant peer-to-peer applications for commerce, communication, and business.
Nicola Duke, a foreign exchange and cryptocurrency analyst, claims that the currency could see a decrease in trading value as a result of its rapid increase over the past few months.
“The fact we have had that wobble yesterday might mean we see some profit taking into the weekend,” Duke told CNBC in an interview. But according to Duke, a sizable drop means the currency could ultimately return to trading around a value of $240 by Tuesday.
According to the CNBC report, investors and major financial institutions have lined up behind the Ethereum project, which has led to an increase in interest in the cryptocurrency project.
Daniel Masters, director at Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund, argues that cryptocurrencies are beginning to play a real role in global commerce. “Some of these currencies are doing a lot better relatively, but the point here is we are moving into this really rich diverse cryptocurrency ecosystem side by side the fiat currency,” Masters said.
Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about economics and higher education for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart.com