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2021-04-14

Ethereum reached a new all-time high!

Ethereum ( ETH ) reached a new all-time high on Tuesday, and the next major update to its ongoing development - dubbed "Berlin" - is scheduled for Wednesday, April 14.

The price of Ether reached $2228 on Tuesday, marking the highest dollar valuation the coin has reached since its inception. The coin's market capitalization surpassed $250 billion for the first time. For context, the market capitalization of Bitcoin ( BTC ) was at the same level just six months ago, in late October 2020.

Ether's 1,328% growth over the past year has continued despite serious concerns about the Ethereum network's transaction fees. In February, Ethereum's average transaction fee reached an all-time high of $38.21, according to data from Bitinfocharts, making Ether generally unsuitable as a trading currency.

But investors are apparently hoping to alleviate Ethereum's bulky fees, especially in the form of an upcoming network upgrade that will radically change the way fees are paid. The "London" upgrade, scheduled for this summer, has raised the ire of Ethereum miners because it entails plans to burn some of the fees that would normally be charged by mining platform operators.

Wednesday's Berlin update is expected to be less impactful in the short term, but will pave the way for London and make four major changes to the network as it stands. A full technical breakdown can be found on the official version page, but various changes will be made to the blockchain to reduce the cost of certain transaction types. The new transaction envelope will also make it easier to package multiple transactions into a single transfer.

It wasn't the only coin to reach a new all-time record on Tuesday; Bitcoin also reached new peaks as the price of the BTC coin rose to over $63,000 . Meanwhile, the coins directly behind Bitcoin and Ether in market capitalization rankings - Binance Coin ( BNB ) and XRP - also reached new all-time records in the past 24 hours.