Bitcoin is the the most well-known cryptocurrency, but there are hundreds more. Do you know which second most used one? It is Ether, also called Ethereum, of the Ethereum platform. Let’s analyze its evolution through the chart.

If we analyze the evolution of Ethereum through, for example, the chart that can be seen below, extracted from “Coinmarketcap”, we see how this token has gained popularity over the years to become today the second most used digital currency, behind Bitcoin.

Ether was launched in the summer of 2015. As initially it seemed like the cryptocurrency isn’t very popular, soon its market capitalization reached more than one billion dollars.

In 2017 the Ether shoots up and gets a price that exceeds 300 dollars with more than 34 billions dollars of market capital. Since then, there have been some ups and downs. At the beginning of 2018, traders who were buying crypto raised a price of Ether for more than 1,370 dollars and the market capital exceeded 100 billion dollars.

After this peak, the value of Ether has gone down. We observed a considerable drop until April 2018. It was because of the Bitcoin’s price which hit the record and started to decrease. As the altcoins are strongly attached to Bitcoin, it influenced also ETH.

Although it’s recovering a bit, the line trend doesn’t seem to hit the record price from January 2018.

However, as the graph shows, the interest in ETH grows what you can see by the increasing volume.

What Ethereum is used for?

Ethereum or Ether is a very attractive digital currency for many people. Like Bitcoin, it is based on anonymous data transactions through the blockchain. That means that it is completely decentralized, the intermediaries disappear, and once the management is done, it can’t be modified.

Unlike Bitcoins, Ether is special because isn’t only used as a currency or for making payments online. The Ethereum token uses a system to manage transactions called smart contracts. It means that you can make contracts for financial and banking services such as mortgages or loans. Therefore, instead of signing a paper contract, it is validated through the system of digital contracts.

In fact, the areas that can benefit from these contracts are really wide, and are used by many companies. And who accepts Ethereum as payment? Every time more companies accept digital currencies, like Ethereum. The company about interior designs for apartments, Overstock, or the aeronautical company Tapjets, are two examples. So why not try it?