Ether soars to record high over $2,400 after Coinbase IPO and ahead of network upgrades

• Ether rose to a new high of over $2,400 in the wake of the Coinbase direct listing.
• Crypto exchange Coinbase's IPO has boosted the cryptocurrency world, analysts said.
• But excitement is also building around Ethereum and the network's various uses.

Ether soared to an all-time high above $2,400 on Thursday in the wake of the $100 billion Coinbase direct listing, with upgrades to the Ethereum network and new applications adding to the excitement around the cryptocurrency.

The Ethereum network's cryptocurrency rose as high as $2,487 on Thursday morning, according to data from the Kraken exchange. It was trading at $2,446 at 5.56 a.m. ET, having climbed 4.8% over 24 hours.

Analysts said Coinbase's listing was a pivotal moment for the crypto world, adding legitimacy to the booming industry.

"As big of a day as it was for Coinbase, today marks an even bigger day for crypto," Kraken analysts said in a note. "Coinbase's direct listing is most certainly a huge milestone for the industry and further proof that we're really just in the early innings of this game."

Many investors are excited about the cryptocurrency and the Ethereum network it runs on. The network is set for major upgrades, including one that will start to burn coins, which some analysts have said could lead to sharp price rises for ether.

Ether has outperformed bitcoin in 2021 with a gain of more than 220% as of Thursday. Bitcoin had fallen from all-time highs to around $62,575 on Thursday.

The buzz around the Coinbase IPO had also helped send alternative cryptocurrencies such as XRP and Dogecoin spiking. Dogecoin was up around 3% over 24 hours to $0.13166 on Thursday, according to Coindesk data, while XRP was down 4.6% to $1.72.

Ethereum also has a number of applications that can be built upon it, including non-fungible tokens or NFTs and decentralized finance.

Investor Mark Cuban said he was bullish on ether and Ethereum on a podcast earlier in April, thanks in part to the network upgrades. "I think the applications leveraging smart contracts and extensions on Ethereum will dwarf bitcoin," he told Unchained.

On Tuesday, Ethereum development company ConsenSys said it had raised $65 million from investors including JPMorgan and UBS to further develop applications on the network.