Altair Upgrade Goes Live, Ether Sets A New All-Time High

Ether reached a new all-time high a few hours ago after the Altair upgrade went live on the Ethereum blockchain.

Ether Sets A New All-Time High

Ether, the native token of the Ethereum network, reached a new all-time high earlier today. The cryptocurrency surpassed the $4,416 level a few hours ago, setting a new all-time high in the process.

ETH’s all-time high comes just over a week after BTC made the same move. Bitcoin reached a new all-time high above $67,200 on Tuesday last week. However, the price went through a consolidation period, and it is now trading above the $60k level again.

Ether topped the $4k level last week. However, it dropped below $4,000 earlier this week as the broader cryptocurrency market experienced a massive correction that saw coins lose more than 5% of their values across the board.

The market has since recovered, and BTC and others are rallying. ETH rallied to a new all-time high a few hours ago due to the activation of the Altair upgrade on the Ethereum blockchain. The Altair upgrade is important because it is the first upgrade on the Ethereum Beacon Chain that was launched late last year.

The Ethereum Beacon Chain introduces the proof of stake (PoS) protocol to the Ethereum network. With this introduction, the Ethereum blockchain will slowly phase out the proof of work (PoW) protocol and become a PoS network.

The Altair upgrade is very important to the eventual launch of Ethereum 2.0. The Ethereum developers expect ETH 2.0 to launch sometime next year. The launch would make Ethereum a PoS protocol and solve some of its issues, such as high gas fees and scalability.

ETH Could Rally Above $4,500

ETH has dropped to the $4,300 level after reaching its all-time high above $4,400. At the time of writing, ETH is trading at $4,323 per coin. However, market participants are bullish about the cryptocurrency and expect its price to surge past $4,500 in the short term.

In the medium and long term, Ether could look to top the $5k level over the next few months as experts anticipate another Bull Run before the end of the year.