Ethereum has been demonstrating green daily candles for three days in a row since Monday, rising from $1,544 to $1,945 and adding around 20 percent.
Several events may have prompted ETH to come so close to surpassing its recent all-time high of $2,036, reached more than a month ago.
Visa now uses Ethereum for settling payments in USDC
On March 29, media reports emerged with sensational news: global payments giant Visa started using USD-based stablecoin USDC and settling transactions with it directly on the Ethereum network.
This pushed both Bitcoin and Ether up approximately 5 percent each. USD Coin (USDC) is the second biggest dollar-based stablecoin with an $11 billion market cap.
Besides, such crypto-related companies as BlockFi, Bitpanda and Fold offer their users Visa cards with Bitcoin cashback.
Institutional investors continue to buy into ETH
As reported by U.Today in early March, large Chinese tech company Meitu allocated approximately $40 million into the two major crypto assets, Bitcoin and Ethereum.
On March 25, the news was spread of a DLT infrastructure company and asset manager, Staked, allowing financial institutions to make profits using ETH—by staking on the ETH 2.0 network—on the Beacon Chain launched on Dec. 1 of last year.
The Staked ETH Trust accepts crypto from accredited investors, offering eight percent returns on ETH 2.0 staking.
Besides, Grayscale fund, the largest cryptocurrency buyer, keeps adding ETH to its stash for institutional investors.
The Beacon Chain is the first step toward Ethereum's fully shifting to ETH 2.0 and switching to the proof of stake (PoS) consensus model from proof of work (PoW) used by Bitcoin and multiple altcoins.
$6,911,649,697 in ETH now locked in ETH 2.0 contract
Meanwhile, the total value of ETH locked in the deposit contract on the Beacon Chain keeps increasing. Today, on April 1, it has reached another all-time high according to Glassnode. It now totals a whopping $6.9 billion worth of Ether.
Bitcoin approaches $60,000 again
The flagship cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, leads the way for other top cryptocurrencies and pulls them along when it rises or falls.
After plunging to the $50,480 zone on March 25, BTC managed to recover the $59,800 level on Wednesday. As of press time, Bitcoin is changing hands at $58,781 on the Kraken exchange.
Ethereum is trading at $1,925 on Binance. Some in the community expect Bitcoin to hit $60,000 and Ethereum to reach $2,000 on the same day soon—as has already happened earlier this year.
On March 31, ETH managed to hit $1,945.
Arman Shirinyan
Alex Dovbnya
