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For most people, it makes sense just to start with the top two: Bitcoin and Ether. Either would have been a relatively good investment so far in 2021 – Bitcoin has almost doubled and Ether has quadrupled, compared with a 12 per cent gain for the S&P 500.
So what do you need to know before deciding where to put your money?
The case for Ether
Ether is the token used on the world’s most actively used blockchain – the technology used for verifying and recording transactions – Ethereum.
Ethereum is used by the likes of Microsoft for its blockchain offering and has powered the explosive growth in non-fungible tokens, the latest digital art craze.
Ether is up just under 1% over the past 24 hours, currently trading for US$3,504 (AU$4,492). That’s down slightly from the all-time high of US$3,607 that Ethereum breached earlier in the day.
Bitcoin headed the other way, slipping just under 1% in 24 hours to US$56,579. Bitcoin hit its own all-time high of US$64,829 in mid-April.
Bitcoin remains a high-returning investment in 2021, with the price up 94% year to date. That gives the world’s biggest crypto a market capitalisation of US$1.05 trillion, according to data from CoinDesk.
While that’s a stellar return by any standards, investors in Ether have done far better.
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