Ethereum Reaches New Price Peak, Leading to Further Interest from Nvidia

Bitcoin may be hogging all the spotlight as of late, but we cannot discount some of the smaller competing altcoins that also call the crypto space home. One of those altcoins is Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap and the number one competitor to bitcoin. At the time of writing, Ethereum has hit a new all-time high of more than $1,900 per unit, and the asset appears to be on a serious roll.

Ethereum Has Surged Like No Other Coin

Bitcoin doing well is typically good news for its competing crypto cousins. When BTC spikes, the others will usually follow, and as bitcoin has consistently been on the rise over the past six months, so has Ethereum. The currency has risen by more than 160 percent since the beginning of the year, thereby beating out bitcoin by more than double its rate of 78 percent.

Jehan Chu – co-founder of venture capital firm Kenetic Capital – explained in a recent interview:

The ether slingshot is in motion, with the number two coin looking cheap and posed to surge relative to bitcoin’s $52K level.

While bitcoin works predominantly as a cryptocurrency, Ethereum has brought several additional factors to the table through its blockchain network. It is typically the most attractive system to those looking to develop decentralized apps (dapps) or new coins given its smart contract capabilities.

Ethereum has run into serious problems because of its popularity. The amount of traffic has proved difficult for the Ethereum network to handle, leading to slow transaction times and high gas fees among other things. Its co-creator Vitalik Buterin has even commented that Ethereum was lacking scalability. However, the unveiling of Ethereum 2.0 last year is likely to set the currency back on track.

Chu further states:

Despite ongoing complaints about Ethereum network fees, it remains the go-to destination for all blockchain applications.

Ethereum is doing so well pricewise that chip developer Nvidia is establishing a new series of semiconductors specifically designed to mine the world’s second-largest form of crypto. Known as CMPs – or cryptocurrency mining processors – the cards are set to go on sale this coming March according to a recent statement issued by the company.

Matt Wuebbling – head of GeForce marketing at Nvidia – commented in a blog post:

CMP products – which don’t do graphics – are sold through authorized partners and optimized for the best mining performance and efficiency.

Furthermore, the company is also unveiling a new addition to its gaming graphics card series known as the RTX 3060. At this stage, the card is still undergoing specific modifications, and likely won’t be ready until the latter half of the year, though customers are already engaged in pre-ordering the product.

The Card Maker Is Very Interested

Nvidia said:

RTX 3060 software drivers are designed to detect specific attributes of the Ethereum cryptocurrency mining algorithm.

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