While many Ether-based companies have created their own Ethereum ERC-20-based tokens, which are listed and able to be traded themselves, the core ETH coin still makes the most.

Despite these Ether-based applications running on their own tokens, the applications themselves still rely on ETH as "gas" to keep them running on the Ethereum network.

When people buy tokens for these companies, they usually do so by purchasing them with ETH, and as more of these companies pop up and the demand for ETH increases in order to get access to them, so will the price of ETH.