Ether passed $4,000 for the first time today, which means that it has passed the psychological barrier. This new price level comes only a week after ETH crossed $3,000 for the first time.
During the previous week, Ether became the 28th largest asset globally, surpassing Bank of America. Now, with a market cap of $454.49 billion, ETH has left behind names such as Wal-Mart or Johnson and Johnson, while trailing behind JPMorgan Chase which is the largest American bank by assets under management.
Institutional interest is considered responsible for this increase as Coinshares revealed that institutions acquired more than $30 million in ETH at the end of the previous month. It is believed that money managers now own $13.9 billion in ETH or ETH vehicles.
Also notable is the fact that the European Investment Bank announced it would start issuing a $120 million bond on the world’s largest layer-1. At the same time, the popularity of DeFi has also continued to grow.
Some believe that the approaching date of the upgrades to the network with EIP-1559 and ETH 2.0 is the main reason behind the increase. EIP-1559, which will be a part of the London hard fork, is expected to decrease gas fees and make Ether a more deflationary asset.
All of this has made people talk about a possible “flippening” in which Ether changes places with Bitcoin when it comes to market cap.