Source
Ether, the second biggest crypto, has reached today an historic maximum, while bitcoin is slightly lower. Ether reached 2785$ this morning, according to CoinMarketCap.
The growth is probably influenced by the European Bank, that announced Wednesday that it has issued digital bonds on the Ethereum blockchain, which probably led to a speculation that the crypto gains strength among financial institutions.
Ethereum is also going through a major update which will push it even further, theoretically reducing the transaction times and the quantity of energy consumption necessary to process the transaction. The bitcoin and ether blockchains have attracted criticism from environmentalists regarding the impact on the climate.