Amidst DeFi’s explosive growth, ETH’s momentum doesn’t appear to be slowing anytime soon.
The recent Ethereum pump didn’t break for the weekend, as ETH broke the $400 barrier today, continuing the cryptocurrency’s immense gains.
Ethereum hasn’t traded at $400 since early August 2018. The latest benchmark comes following a 14.1,-percent increase over the last 24 hours, with ETH rising from $351.19 before ultimately surpassing $400. As of this writing, the price sits at $400.93, according to CoinGecko.
On Friday, Ethereum broke the $340 mark for the first time since July 2019, and on Saturday reached a market capitalization of $40 billion—the first time since August 2018.
Not a bad birthday present for Ethereum, which marked the five-year anniversary of its mainnet launch on July 30.
However, it’s the future of Ethereum that seems to be fueling the recent price growth. The rise of decentralized finance (DeFi) is a key contributor, with over $4 billion being locked up in DeFi apps and limiting the trading supply. On Friday, the DeFi market cap hit $8 billion for the first time.
Also, the release of Ethereum 2.0 is just around the corner, with the cryptocurrency switching from the current proof-of-work model to proof-of-stake, as well as utilizing sharding techniques to speed up transactions on the blockchain.
Breaking the $400 barrier represents a dramatic turnaround for Ethereum, which hovered around the $110 mark in March following the “Black Thursday” market crash as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic reaching the West.
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