Ethereum just keeps on growing with no end in sight. It was only yesterday that I was dreaming of Ethereum hitting $200 in 3 months - but it seems like we reached that goal already. I initially thought $130 was reaching the moon, so today I think we have reached Mars.

Korea Power

A lot of this rise is due to the surge of popularity of ETH in Korea. If you look at coin market cap, you can see that Korea accounts for nearly 40% of all ETH trades. In fact, the Korean exchange Bithumb has surpassed Poloniex in ETH trade volume. ETH is in such demand in Korea right now that it's trading at $266 on Bithumb.

Why the recent surge in popularity?

The surge in Ethereum popularity can be attributed to a few reasons:

• Global rise of Cryptocurrency - Recent political and corporate events has made cryptocurrency the next "IT", leading to huge amounts of new investors.
• Ethereum as a development platform- Never has Ethereum gained so much attention from developers. With ICOs of Ethereum based apps happening every day, more and more developers are dreaming of new ways to use smart contracts. And with that comes even more applications.
• Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) - Recently 86 big enterprises have signed up for the EEA, with names like Samsung, Merck and DTCC. Enterprise interest in Ethereum is happening.
• Ethereum Upgrades - The roadmap for the future of ETH is amazing, with zk SNARKs and Proof of Stake being proposed.

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