Ethereum has certainly shot up in price recently, but I do think that much of this increase is driven by the fact that Eth is scheduled to switch from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake in the not too distant future. (Whether this actually happens within schedule is another matter)

Presuming this occurs before Nov 2017 as announced, new coins will be generated by validators who are required to invest their own Eth in a special deposit in order to virtually mine new coins. Current speculation seems to be that you will need about 32 Eth to be able to validate.