Ethereum sets two new records and Nvidia releases special Etherum mining hardware. Is the next all-time high just a matter of time?
While nervousness is increasing in the stock markets, Bitcoin (BTC) has reached a new all-time high and Ethereum can also benefit from it. Some traders even believe it will soon rise to $ 2,000.
Within the last 24 hours, the Ethereum price rose 2.24 percent. Since ETH has not just broken a record in the past few days, there are currently many indications that a new all-time high is only a matter of time.
source: https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/ethereum
The latest all-time high is at $ 1,950.98.
New Ethereum record on the CME
A week after the Ethereum Futures started on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the daily trading volume has already exceeded $ 75 million. Futures are derivative contracts whereby two parties agree to trade an asset at a specific price on a specific date. Futures contracts are binding and, unlike options, must be executed regardless of the market price of the asset on the expiration date.
source: glassnode.com
The institutional demand for ETH futures is enormous. The combined value of all futures contracts (open interest) currently amounts to $ 62 million, according to Glassnode.
Nevertheless, data from Skew shows that a large part of the volume is still generated by crypto exchanges such as Binance, Huobi or OKEx. Therefore, the CME is still very small compared to other derivatives trading platforms. But the developments of the last week have shown that more and more institutional investors are using ETH futures. For this reason, among other things, it can be assumed that the volume at the CME will increase in the coming weeks.
source: skew.com
Probably the volume on the CME is still so small, because the ETH futures are still so new and therefore not as well established as futures on the conventional crypto exchanges. Nevertheless, the steadily increasing ETH Futures trading volume at the CME shows that more and more institutional investors are now also interested in Ethereum after Bitcoin.
Ethereum usage at record level
In addition, data from Glassnode shows that Ethereum is currently being used extremely heavily. Never before have there been so many addresses that have interacted with the Ethereum protocol.
source: glassnode.com
The three-month average of active Ethereum addresses has broken its previous all-time high from 2018. Due to the latest developments in non-fungible tokens and the steady growth of decentralized finance on Ethereum, some are currently convinced that this trend will continue in the coming months.
Miner versus Gamer: Nvidia wants to solve the conflict
Although Ethereum 2.0 is getting closer every day, the graphics card manufacturer Nvidia presented a new processor chip on February 18, which is specially designed for the mining of Ethereum. With the new product, known as “Cryptocurrency Mining Processor (CMP)”, Nvidia wants to end the long-lasting tension between miners and gamers.
The CMP is therefore only suitable for miners of cryptocurrencies and is not suitable for normal gaming. Ethereum mining is currently more profitable than ever and in January 2021, ETH miners made a total of 800 million US dollars in profit.