Dogecoin and ethereum climb to record-highs [working hed]

Cryptocurrencies dogecoin (DOGE-USD) and ethereum (ETH-USD) hit all-time highs on Tuesday morning in London following a rise in institutional interest in both tokens. 

The joke token dogecoin was up more than 14%, to trade at $0.4389 by 8.30am in London. Ethereum, the second most popular cryptocurrency, broke the $3,400 mark earlier in the session to trade around 9% higher, before coming back down. 

Ethereum’s all-time high was $3,456.57 (£2,489.18)— a consolidation of a rally of around 360% this year alone. 

Meanwhile, bitcoin (BTC-USD) was down by around 3%. 

Ethereum’s rise has been pegged to the growing number of developers building decentralised finance or “DeFi” applications on its blockchain platform, as well as a growing institutional interest in crypto as a market. 

Among others, the European Investment Bank has said it will issue its first ever digital bond on a public blockchain using ethereum’s technology. 

Meanwhile, the meme-inspired dogecoin also surged off the back of trading platform eToro saying it would offer it to its 20 million users. 

The token has rallied around 250% from its intra-day low on 23 April, according to currency watchers FX Street. 

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The moves also follow an announcement by online banking platform Revolut that it will soon allow people to directly withdraw bitcoin from their platform. This would challenge the status quo set by other platforms such as Robinhood and PayPal (PYPL), that prevent bitcoin bought on their platforms being moved elsewhere.

News also eked out over the bank holiday weekend that PayPal is mulling creating its own stablecoin — a cryptocurrency that attempts to peg its market value to some external reference.

Bitcoins fall continues following news on Friday that it had surpassed a closely-watch technical hurdle, which is usually a precursor to further gains. It had climbed past its price average over the past 50 days which is usually seen as a measure of momentum.

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