Ether soared past $3,000 on Monday, setting a new high. Investors have a feeling that it may grow bigger than BTC into the future by riding on DeFi.

On Bitsamp exchange, ETH rose more than 3% to exchange at $3,144.81 around Monday morning. It’s a rise clocking 325% this year. Notably, it passed the 95% rise for Bitcoin.

Bitcoin now passed $1 Trillion by market capitalization, recorded gains past $50,000 point, and rallies to close the week at $58,700 by Monday. That’s a 4% gain but significantly below the $64,895.22 record high.

In part, the big rally is a catch-up to late 2020 gains in bitcoin, says James Quinn, managing director at Q9 Capital. The rally is a buildup on the late 2020 gains for Bitcoin. Also, it’s a reflection of the advances by the Ethereum blockchain, a growing focal point for non-bank transactions platforms.

“At first, the rally was really led by bitcoin because as many institutional investors came into space, that would be their natural first port of call,” Quinn said.

“But as the rally has matured over the last six months, you have DeFi, and a lot of DeFi is built on Ethereum.”

The launching of ETFs relating to Ether in Canada has seen an increase in prices and demand for ETH wallets to hold client NFTs, and most have an affiliation with arts.

ETH/BTC cross-rates surged over 100%, marking a 2.5 yearly high on Sunday.

And that’s a significant pointer to the degree of rotation for ETH as the second most valuable digital asset for investors regarding portfolio diversification.

DeFi volumes have significantly increased along with investors’ confidence. They see ETH as a second best. Reports from Bloomberg point towards the European Investment Bank planning to issue digital bonds via the ETH blockchain. Concurrently JP Morgan is also planning towards managing the Bitcoin fund.

According to Financial Times, Andreessen Horowitz plans to raise a $1 Billion fund for crypto-assets and start-up ventures.