Ether Continues Rally, Breaks ShapeShift Volume Record

Ether, the cryptocurrency driving the Ethereum platform, continues to dominate trading markets completing a 100% week-on-week rise, the affects of which are being felt across the cryptocurrency sphere.

Also read: DEVgrants Receives $100K for Ethereum Developers

Extraordinary trading volumes were the prime facilitator of Ether’s rise in value, which topped 40% in just 24 hours between February 9 and 10. Over $26.1 million USD was handled in the same period, roughly a third of Bitcoin’s daily trading volume. The events also caused a modest Bitcoin trading spike, while the latter’s price continued to settle around $375 USD per coin.

The past week has seen fervent activity for the Ethereum project’s fledgling currency, Vitalik Buterin tweeting his apparent surprise at the rise in trade volumes as early as February 6, prior to the most recent scramble to secure ETH on a large scale.

Whether the increases will be sustained is a matter of speculation, yet punters are already considering the possibility of an end to the gold rush.

“…[I]t’s not certain that the network would really benefit from a strong Ether if its purpose is to become a utility and not a storage of wealth,” Finance Magnates’ Avi Mizrahi wrote in an update piece published Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, ShapeShift.io’s Erik Voorhees took to Reddit to announce the trading frenzy had set new record volumes for the exchange service.

“We had a whirlwind day today at ShapeShift. Over $500,000 worth of BTC/ETH trades in the past 24 hours. This blows away our previous daily volume record,” he wrote. “…We’re working on improving contract support, and look forward to some more advanced Ethereum functionality. We’re bullish on the Ethereum ecosystem.”

Despite the Ether Hype…

Yet circumstantial trading is not the only quiver to Ethereum’s bow in its grand entry into the market. Concrete integrations are meanwhile coming on apace; most recently, ConsenSys announced its partnership Tuesday with Cannonical, owner of Ubuntu, to deliver an Ethereum-enabled identity solution on Ubuntu Smartphones and tablets.

The product at stake, BlockApps’ Nimbus, facilitates secure interaction with blockchains through the biometric security features already available on user devices. Together, the implementation is designed to be what participants are referring to as an “Internet of People”.

“Canonical is keen to support the development of blockchain applications and their expansion from business cloud solutions to mobile consumer applications,” Thibaut Rouffineau, head of devices marketing at Canonical, said in an announcement published by the IB Times Monday.

What do you think about Ether’s recent growth? Let us know in the comments below!

Featured image courtesy of Ethereum.

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