Four major factors simultaneously drive Ethereum's rise, and its market value is only 40% away from Bitcoin

Ethereum's spring is still going on. From $8.52 at the beginning of this year, Ethereum hit a new record high last week, reaching an incredible $269.36, an increase of more than 3,000%. According to CoinMarketCap data, as of press time, the total market value of Bitcoin is about $47.9 billion, while the market value of Ethereum has reached $34.4 billion, which means that if Ethereum rises another 40%, it will surpass Bitcoin and become the largest cryptocurrency. For ETH, which has already risen 30 times this year, it may not be so difficult.

This week, Ethereum hit a new high of $269.36, according to WorldCoinIndex data.

There are many reasons for Ethereum’s record-breaking surge, and to sum up, there are four major factors: the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), ICOs, South Korea, and Russia.

The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) was established

In March 2017, blockchain startups, research labs, and global enterprises announced the formation of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA). The goal of this alliance is to jointly develop industry standards and encourage cooperation among various members.

The EEA has hundreds of members, including Microsoft, Intel, JPMorgan Chase, Deloitte, Accenture, ING, ConsenSys and Toyota Research Institute. The alliance is seeking to research common projects and work on the future of Ethereum's permissionless blockchain, focusing on its scalability, privacy and confidentiality.

Julio Faura, Chairman of the EEA, said:

“The enthusiasm for the EEA from corporate members is really compelling. Our new members come from a variety of industries such as pharmaceuticals, mobile, banking, automotive, management consulting, hardware as well as the startup community driving innovation. It’s great to see everyone coming together to build the next generation economy on Ethereum blockchain solutions.”

This kind of advocacy is undoubtedly giving Ethereum legitimacy and has played a major role in the recent surge.

ICO explosion

Initial coin offerings (ICOs) have become a new way for blockchain startups to raise millions in a short period of time by selling custom tokens. This type of offering thrives without a legal or regulatory framework, which is perhaps what makes it so appealing.

Smith+Crown is a blockchain consulting firm that tracks ICO projects and their outcomes. According to the company's data, ICO projects raised $101 million in 2016. So far in 2017, more than $300 million has been raised, more than double the amount raised in the whole of 2016 in less than six months.

Recently, many projects in the ICO field are based on the Ethereum blockchain. Because of Ethereum's smart contract capabilities, these ICO projects will use ETH, thus driving up the price of ETH.

South Korea provides strong impetus for ETH's rise

South Korea’s three largest digital currency exchanges have integrated ETH, making South Korea the world’s largest Ethereum exchange market with a daily trading volume of $335 million. Since then, the country has accounted for 38% of global ETH trading in the past few months.

South Korea’s interest in ETH is so strong that the ETH/KRW trading pair has surpassed the ETH/BTC pair in size, which once accounted for more than 50% of all ETH trading.

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Vitalik Buterin

As reported recently by 8btc, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a historic meeting with the founder of Ethereum. Although the specific details were not disclosed, we do know that Putin is ready to support the development of blockchain technology.

The introduction of this meeting by the Kremlin website and the Press Secretariat confirmed Putin’s interest in blockchain technology. In my opinion, the above four major factors have jointly pushed ETH to a new high, so what will happen next?