By Ritvik Carvalho and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
LONDON\/NEW YORK, May 12 (Reuters) – Cryptocurrency ether hit another record high on Wednesday, taking gains this year to close to 500% on the back of growing interest in decentralized finance applications and increasing institutional interest in cryptocurrencies.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ether, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization after bitcoin, climbed to $4,380.64.35, but was last down 4.1% at $4,029.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Bitcoin was also down more than 4% at $54,188.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ether has jumped about 470% against the dollar this year as the ethereum blockchain becomes more widely used by peer-to-peer – or decentralised –<\/a> cryptocurrency platforms that enable crypto-denominated lending outside of traditional banking institutions.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The surge has also seen ether – which in the crypto world is also widely referred to as ethereum – outperform bitcoin, which has almost doubled in price this year as larger investors warm to the emerging technology.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n “Ethereum is growing in part by the prospects of a revamped network with the right upgrades highly anticipated to accommodate DApps (decentralized applications) and smart contracts that are built on it,” said Nick Spanos, co-founder of Zap Protocol, a blockchain-agnostic decentralized network.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n “The coin is bound to grow more in the near future, with an ambitious target of $10,000 by year end.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n U.S. bank J.P. Morgan on Wednesday said the pace of evolution in the ethereum market has “remained rapid” and that there is still room for growth.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Open interest in CME Ethereum futures had increased to $540 million in three months, the bank’s analysts said in a note.<\/p>\n