Ethereum Steals Bitcoin's Thunder As It Storms Past $1,100

Bitcoin (BTC) has spiked nearly 22% in one week, but that spectacular gain is easily eclipsed by Ethereum (ETH), the number two cryptocurrency by market cap.

What Happened: ETH’s gains in the same period have been nearly double that of Bitcoin, almost touching 59%.

The Vitalik Buterin-founded cryptocurrency crossed the $1,000 mark on Sunday and is hovering near its 52-week high at $1,128 at press time.

The astronomical surge in ETH prices has not gone unnoticed among the cryptocurrency community.

Cryptocurrency journalist Joseph Young noted on Twitter that ETH is now up ten times since the low hit in March..

The daily volume of Ethereum on Binance surpassed $3 billion.

$3,000,000,000.

Bitcoin's volume on Binance is $3.9 billion.

— Joseph Young (@iamjosephyoung) January 4, 2021

Why It Matters: Cryptocurrency investor and Olympian Tyler Winklevoss tweeted Sunday that Bitcoin and Ethereum “are already the biggest hits of 2021.”

Owning $ETH and $BTC in this market is like being bi-sexual in an orgy.

Top that tweet.

— Don't follow Shardi B if you hate money (@ShardiB2) January 3, 2021

Meanwhile, cryptocurrency exchange Deribit said over the weekend that ETH options interest hit a new all-time high of $1.1 billion.

$ETH Options open interest hits a new all-time high of 1.1B USD

85% of total ETH options market OI is held at Deribit!$ETH price ~1050 USD $ETH options highest strike - 7K on Dec21 expiry

— Deribit (@DeribitExchange) January 4, 2021

Ever since the beginning of the year, BTC investments have yielded 12.65% returns, while ETH returning a whopping 46.34%.

Grayscale Bitcoin Trust GBTC and Grayscale Ethereum Trust ETHE closed lower by 2.74% and 9.14  at $32 and $15.50 respectively on Thursday.

Price Action: Bitcoin traded 2.7% lower at $32,953.22 and Ethereum traded 41.71% higher at $1,112.88 at press time.

See Also: Top 5 Smart Contract Platforms Are Outperforming Bitcoin Today