Ethereum cryptocurrency passes $4,000 for the first time

On May 5, 2020, one Ether token was worth $186. One year later, on Sunday night, the cryptocurrency hit $4,000 for the first time, a rise of over 2,100%. Though Dogecoin is sucking up most of the world’s cryptocurrency attention, it’s been a huge May for Ethereum already, as Sunday’s milestone comes just a week since the cryptocurrency hit $3,000 for the first time. 

Ether is a cryptocurrency minted on the Ethereum blockhain. Bitcoin, the most known currency, is built on its own, separate blockchain. But while Bitcoin is more like gold, principally used as a speculative asset, Ether is used by cryptocurrency traders to buy and sell “altcoins“, such as Dogecoin. NFTs, tokens that authenticate ownership of a digital product, are notably bought and sold using Ether, not Bitcoin.

The Ethereum blockchain was founded in 2013 by Canadian-Russian programmer Vitalik Buterin when he was just 19 years old.  Buterin has over 333,000 Ether tokens — it’s possible to see other traders’ portfolios if you have their wallet address — which at the current price values his holdings at over $1.36 billion.