The price of Ether set a new all-time high today, as the token increased in price by over 14% in 24 hours to burst above the $1,500 barrier. As of publication, Ethereum was trading for around $1,531, according to data from Messari.
Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap after Bitcoin, is now worth more than $170 billion.
The cryptocurrency is fresh off a massive January, during which the price closed above $1,000 for 28 straight nights. Trading volumes on decentralized exchanges also meant that ETH did nearly twice the amount in daily transferred value (over $19 billion) to BTC throughout the month.
Decentralized finance, the suite of applications that let users trade and lend without banks or brokers, is the main driver of growth on the Ethereum blockchain. Over $28 billion in value is locked into Ethereum-based DeFi protocols, according to DeFi Pulse, a new record.
So far this year, Ethereum and DeFi are moving in lockstep in the same direction: up.