Ethereum hit another all-time high Wednesday with the cryptocurrency now up more than 60 percent in a week.

The digital currency hit a record high of $1,417.38 before paring some of those gains, according to CoinDesk, a website that tracks the prices of the digital currency. Ethereum is up over 13,000 percent in the last year. Ethereum is the world's second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization behind bitcoin, with a value of $131.5 billion, CoinDesk data shows. The digital coin is backed by a blockchain, much like bitcoin, but the technology is slightly different and aimed at a specific use case: smart contracts. Many see it as a cryptocurrency with a real world use because of large companies that are experimenting with the technology. A consortium called the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, which includes companies like Microsoft and JP Morgan, is looking to develop applications using the Ethereum blockchain.

There also appears to be a sense of investors looking at alternative digital coins to make a profit. Ripple recently surged to a record high before plunging. Some of that money may have been funneled into ethereum. As of 8:00 a.m. London time on Wednesday, over 43 percent of purchases of ethereum had been made using bitcoin, according to CryptoCompare. Last year also saw just over $3.7 billion raised via initial coin offerings (ICO), a process where a company can raise money by issuing a new digital token. Investors do not get a stake in the company, but these tokens can be traded, or may be used on a service that the issuing firm offers. Many of these ICOs are built on the ethereum protocol, which has helped the cryptocurrency gain traction.