Ethereum hits a new all-time high above $4,600

Ethereum prices have hit an all-time high of $4,635 during the Asian trading session on Wednesday morning, according to CoinGecko.

The world’s largest smart-contract network has used weekly momentum to reach a new peak and record a 6% increase on the day. Over the past seven days, ETH has added 10%, and it is up 34% over the past month. At the time of writing, Ethereum prices had cooled off to trade at $4,580.

PrimeXBT partner, “BTCyzantinKs General”, commented that it was unlikely that any tokens would outperform ETH in the next few months.

$ETH making new all time highs while funding rates are low, meanwhile the rest of the market has very high rates.

I think the most important question at this point is “What’s going to beat ETH in the next couple of months?”.

And the answer is likely to be “not much”. pic.twitter.com/CAQCrunEwI

— BTCyzantinKs General (@ByzGeneral) November 3, 2021

Ethereum Fundamentals

A popular analyst believes that Bitcoin could tap a new ATH and suck liquidity out of the rest market, just as it has in past market cycles. The momentum is with Ethereum at the moment as new participants are being added to DeFi and NFTs.

He said that the market pumps in two ways, either BTC and ETH.

“It’s essentially a tech (ETH), versus money (BTC), argument. I’m not saying tech is worth more, I’m just saying the market values the tech more at this point in time.”

Ethereum has dropped in value more than Bitcoin. This means that investors are hoarding ETH to generate DeFi yields. There were many arguments against his assertion, with others saying that rival Blockchain tokens like SOL, AVAXX, DOT and RUNE will outperform Ethereum.

As reported by CryptoPotato, the Ethereum network settled a record $536 billion during Q3, 2021.

Deflationary Economics

Ethereum’s monetary economic model will also keep prices up. Over the past week or so, Ethereum issuance has actually been deflationary because more has been burnt by EIP-1559 than has been mined.

According to the Ultrasound.Money fee burning tracker, 741,000 ETH, has been destroyed since early August. This is equivalent to $3.4 Billion going up in smoke at current prices. At current burn rates, the Ethereum network destroys 15,000 ETH, or $68.7 million, every day.

While central banks continue to print and devalue fiat currencies, deflationary ones based on technology are very appealing.

CME Launched Micro ETH Futures?

The most recent price pump occurred shortly after the Chicago Mercantile Exchange had announced a new ETH initiative. According to a press release from PR Newswire, Micro Ether futures are sized at a mere tenth of the asset’s size. They retain all the benefits and features of CME’s Ether futures.

The product is launched months after CME launched Micro Bitcoin futures. These are sized at one-tenth of the size of BTC. Since May’s launch, more than 2.7 million contracts have been traded. Meanwhile, Ether futures have traded 675 000 contracts since launch, amounting to about 33.8 million ETH.

Both Micro Ether

and Micro Bitcoin Futures allow organizations to fine-tune trading for each cryptocurrency. As both Ether and Bitcoin have recently reached all-time highs, trading each at full value can be rather imprecise.

Tim McCourt, CME Group Global Head Equity Index and Alternative Investment Products.- understands why Micro Ether futures are necessary.

” Since February’s launch of Ether futures, we have witnessed steady growth in liquidity, particularly among institutional traders. At the same time, the price of ether has more than doubled since these contracts were introduced, creating demand for a micro-sized contract to make this market even more accessible to a broader range of participants.”

Micro Ether futures will be settled in cash, according to the CME CME CF Ether Dollar Reference Rate which adjusts every day.