Ether Classic Surges to More Than 4-Month High

Dec 29, 2016 at 23:47 UTCUpdated Dec 30, 2016 at 14:17 UTC. The digital currency ether classic surged more than 30% on 29th December, reaching its highest price in over four months.

ETC, the signature token of smart contract-based platform Ethereum Classic, rose to as much as $1.46 during the session, a 31.5% increase from the currency's opening price of $1.11, CoinMarketCap data reveals.

Ethereum itself grew by as much as 13.7% today.

Ethereum classic also benefited from a sharp increase in transaction activity, as 24-hour trading volume climbed above $7.6m, after falling below $500,000 at some points over the last week.

Several market observers have voiced doubts about the long-term viability of ETC and Ethereum Classic, a blockchain that came into existence in late July after Ethereum underwent a hard fork in order to wind back the clock following the rise and fall of distributed organization The DAO. There have been concerns about Ethereum Classic's ability to draw significant interest from developers.

While ETC reached an all-time high of $3.53 in the first few weeks following its listing on CoinMarketCap and Poloniex, its price has dropped sharply since then, trading below $1 for almost all of November.

This one-day price surge provides advocates of ETC with one more positive sign that both the currency and its platform will survive for the long haul.

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