Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, soared to a brand new record above $4,400 Friday on bullish trend surrounding the most used blockchain network.
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The digital asset gained as much as 4.8% to $4,459.20, topping the previous record of $4,379.62 in May. The token traded around $4,387 as of 2:41 p.m. in New York. Other tokens including Binance Coin and Solana rallied. Ether is now worth more than $520 billion, according to data from CoinGecko.com.
Ether’s latest milestone comes as the digital token has far outperformed Bitcoin throughout this year with a sixfold increase amid surging retail and institutional investor interest in the space.
Outstanding futures in Ether soared to $12.5 billion, exceeding the May peak to notch a new record high, Bybt data show. Similar to Bitcoin, funding rates — or the cost of keeping a bullish bet open — have climbed this month on online exchanges. On CME, the futures curve has also steepened in a sign of optimism over the price trajectory.
“On-chain activity metrics for Ethereum appear to have found support and are reaching multi-month highs,” said Sean Farrell and Will McEvoy, digital asset strategists with Fundstrat in a report Thursday. Measures including transaction rate, new addresses and active addresses have shown strong growth this month after suffering declines in May, the strategists said.
Meanwhile, some analysts pointed to a connection between the rise in the uber-popular Shiba Inu coin and Ether’s record.
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Tony Chimdiuto 
Tony Chimdiuto