Ethereum Runs The Show Above $1.6K As Smart Contract, DeFi Cryptos Outshine Bitcoin

The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap Ethereum (ETH) is leading the cryptocurrency rally and posted yet another all-time high of $1,689 on Wednesday evening.

What Happened: ETH traded 10.84% higher at $1,683.32 at press time, while the top cryptocurrency by market cap Bitcoin (BTC) price traded 5.49% higher at $38,074.95.

Grayscale Ethereum Trust ETHE and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust GBTC closed 6.66% and 3.42% higher at $18.89 and $38.06 respectively on Wednesday.

Decentralized finance, or DeFi, cryptocurrencies traded in the green at press time. Uniswap (UNI) up nearly 13% at $21.28. Aave was up 36% at $408.73, and SushiSwap (SUSHI) traded 18.59% higher at $14.87. 

So-called ETH killers also saw upwards momentum as Polkadot traded 22.75% higher at $21.01, and Solana jumped 13.37% to $5.89 at press time.

Why It Matters: The rise in ETH has buoyed major DeFi tokens as well as its rival currencies. 

“Ether made a significant push [since Tuesday] and that is causing projects linked to the DeFi space – as well as DOT, which is seen as a potential ‘Ethereum killer’ – to appreciate and aim for new all-time highs, “ according to OKEX’s senior content editor Hunain Naseer, as reported by CoinDesk.

ETH has also attracted institutional interest according to cryptocurrency investor Ryan Sean Adams.

Public companies staking ETH, there's $4.5b ETH in Grayscale, and ETH futures launch on the CME Monday.

Yes.

The institutions are buying ETH.

And they're just getting started.

— Ryan Sean Adams - rsa.eth  (@RyanSAdams) February 3, 2021

The launch of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s new ETH futures contract this month will bring more institutional investors into the cryptocurrency, as per CoinDesk. 

The surging price of ETH has also given impetus to the options market, as per the Deribit exchange.

3.5million $ETH contracts traded, 114k on average per day, USD 4.1B notional. 425k ETH contracts executed as a block trade (12%)

Options Open Interest on Deribit exceeded USD 10 billion, yet another groundbreaking record.

— Deribit (@DeribitExchange) February 3, 2021

Key metrics indicate that the cryptocurrency fervor particularly in BTC could sustain for the time being.