Ethereum tops 3,000 for first time as rally continues

Continuing to set fresh record highs, ether (ETH-USD) climbed above $3,000 on Sunday for the first time in history, and was last changing hands at $3,097.87, up 6.1% over the last 24 hours. Only a year ago, it traded for around $208, an increase of 1,359%, and this year alone, the crypto is up 310%. Adding to the gains... Ether surged 25% over the past week and the digital asset now has a market cap of about $350B, according to CoinMarketCap.com.What's driving recent demand? Crypto analysts are pointing to a broader awareness of ether's smart contract platforms, which are powering the landscape for NFTs, Web 3.0 apps and decentralized finance (DeFi). In fact, the amount of capital locked in DeFi protocols just crossed $68B, which is up thousands of percent compared to the beginning of the year. Last week, the European Investment Bank even announced that it had issued €100M