Ethereum hits new record high as price surge continues

Ethereum cleared $1,000 for the first time on Friday.
The digital currency cleared $1,200 for the first time in early trade on Monday to reach a new all-time high.
It has since given up some of its gains and is up 6.8% against the dollar to $1,191 at the time of writing.

LONDON — Ethereum's recent surge is continuing on Monday, with the cryptocurrency close to its all-time high.

Ethereum, the second biggest cryptocurrency after bitcoin, crossed $1,000 per coin for the first time on Friday. Gains continued over the weekend and ethereum cleared $1,200 per coin in the early hours of Monday morning. It hit an all-time high of $1,261.41 at 4.40 a.m. UTC/GMT (11.40 p.m. ET).

The digital currency, which was worth just $10 at the start of 2017, has since given up some of its gains but is still trading higher on the day.

Ethereum is up 6.8% against the dollar to $1,191.96 at the time of writing (7.55 a.m. GMT/2.55 a.m. ET):

The immediate spur for the recent rally was a fourth quarter report on the performance of ethereum, which is a decentralized network for people to run contracts on. Transactions volume on its network doubled, according to a blog post, "surpassing 10 transactions per second for days at a time."

Ethereum's recent rally means the cryptocurrency now has a market capitalisation of $118 billion, according to data provider CoinMarketCap.com. That equates to 15% of the entire cryptocurrency market.

Elsewhere in the cryptocurrency markets, bitcoin is down 1.8% against the dollar to $15,875.17 at the time of writing and litecoin is down 2.4% to $264.19.

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