- Ethereum, the third largest cryptocurrency, cleared the much anticipated $1,000 benchmark Thursday, according to Markets Insider data.
- The market capitalization of the digital currency also broke $100 billion for the first time.
- The records follow the release of the cryptocurrency’s quarter four roundup.
Ethereum is kicking off 2018 with impressive new milestones.
The red-hot cryptocurrency cleared $1,000 for the first time early Friday morning, according to data from Markets Insider.
The coin, which started 2017 at around $10, has since fallen back below $1,000 and was trading up roughly 2.74% in the last 24 hours, at $974 per token. Ethereum’s market capitalization broke through $100 billion on Thursday.
These fresh milestones follow the release of the cryptocurrency’s fourth quarter report, which was tweeted out by founder Vitalik Buterin.
"Ethereum has grown very rapidly in the last few months," the report said.
Transactions volume on its network doubled, according to the blog post, "surpassing 10 transactions per second for days at a time."
Ethereum's blockchain, unlike bitcoin's, can support layered-on applications. One such application that has taken the crypto-world by storm was digital cat breeding game "CryptoKitties." Pending transactions on Ethereum's blockchain reached new highs after the game exploded in popularity, according to data from Etherscan.
"As attention and interest in the blockchain space as a whole continues to hit new highs, we are entering a new phase in the industry's growth: the phase where we are finally going from experiments and tests to real, live applications," according to Ethereum's Q4 report.
