By Samuel Indyk
Investing.com – The price of Ethereum hit another record high on Thursday, despite Bitcoin somewhat floundering below its all-time high hit earlier this month.
The world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap hit a new peak yesterday after news that the European Investment Bank (EIB) launched a EUR 100mln 2-year digital bond on the Ethereum network.
The issuance was the market’s first multi-dealer led, primary issuance of digitally native tokens using public blockchain technology.
“In another testimony of EIB’s leading position in capital markets’ innovation, this transaction marks the EIB’s first step as a pioneer in the use of blockchain technology for the issuance of financial securities,” said EIB Director General Finance Bertrand de Mazières.
The transaction consists of a series of bond tokens on a blockchain, where investors purchase and pay for the tokens using traditional fiat currency. The principal is expected to be repaid in commercial fiat at maturity.
Commercial Banks
The sale of the bond was in collaboration with banking giants Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), Banco Santander (MC:SAN) and Societe Generale (PA:SOGN).
“This is an important step in the adoption of this innovative technology and the potential efficiencies that can be derived across the life cycle of the debt issuance,” said Goldman Sachs International CEO Richard Gnodde.
Despite Ethereum’s recent rally, some analysts still doubt whether it will overtake Bitcoin as the most valuable cryptocurrency.
Kevin O’Leary, prominent investor and chair of the O’Shares ETF, said he expects Ethereum to remain as the number two.
“I just believe that to be the case. Bitcoin will always be the ‘gold.’ Ethereum will always be the ’silver’,” O’Leary said on CNBC. “That’s not a bad thing necessarily.”
At 13:45BST, Ethereum was trading just shy of $2,800, up 3.8% in the last 24 hours and with a market cap of over $320bln.
Bitcoin was trading around $54,500, down 1.3% in the last 24 hours and with a market cap of $1.02tln.