$1,000: Ethereum Tops Price Milestone in Market First

Days after hitting $900, ethereum's native ether token, ether, has topped $1,000 for the first time in its history.

After spending two days mostly below its previous high of $900, ether went on a rally Wednesday, and hit its latest milestone of $1,000 early Thursday morning, according to data from CoinDesk's Ethereum Price Chart (EPI).

Despite the increase, however, it remains as the third largest cryptocurrency by market cap, having recently lost the second place spot to Ripple’s XRP token. According to data from CoinMarketCap, XRP's lead has grown to more than $40 billion in the last day.

Thursday also saw the overall cryptocurrency market cap jump past $770 billion according to CoinMarketCap, marking new highs just weeks after a correction saw the figure drop to $418 billion.

The largest cryptocurrency by market cap, bitcoin, is down on the day, having dropped from its week's high of $15,393, according to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index (BPI). Bitcoin has mostly traded sideways over the last week, with prices staying in the $13,000 to $14,000 range interrupted briefly with a drop to nearly $12,000 on Dec. 30.

Bitcoin's dominance in the cryptocurrency market cap remains just below 33%, having dropped from 43% over the last week, according to CoinMarketCap