Ethereum price bucks negative trend of bitcoin and Ripple to reach an all-time high

While nearly all major cryptocurrencies traded in the red today, ethereum shot up to an all-time high.

Ethereum, which recently reclaimed its spot as the second biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, rose to a high of $1,417 today, according to Coindesk’s aggregate price.

Meanwhile, bitcoin dropped below $14,000 to trade down more than five per cent at $13,710 at the time of writing, and Ripple, which just last week neared $4, was trading down 19 per cent at $1.95.

Read more: What is Ripple? The cryptocurrency growing faster than bitcoin explained

Along with many other cryptocurrencies, ethereum’s ether token rode the current of bitcoin mania in 2017.

The digital currency is up more than 13,000 per cent in the last year, and its market cap reached a high of $137bn today, compared with bitcoin’s current value of $232bn, according to Coinmarketcap.

Unlike bitcoin, which was created as an alternative to fiat currencies, ether is the token that fuels the ethereum blockchain, and it aims to be a “world computer” that uses a blockchain to replace internet third parties, which store data in clouds and servers.

At the time of writing, ethereum was trading up 0.72 per cent at $1,306.36.

Read more: Ethereum’s hard fork explained: Here’s what happened and why