Even though almost all altcoins are losing value at the moment, there is one currency which has successfully bucked the trend. It is not Bitcoin Cash for once, as that party is seemingly over for the time being. Instead, we are seeing the Ethereum Classic price going up by leaps and bounds. It’s an interesting development, especially considering that the Bitcoin price has been setting new all-time highs every other day throughout the past week.

Ethereum Classic Price Surpasses $13 Again

While most investors try to buy some Ethereum every now and then, the immutable version of this currency is often overlooked. Ethereum Classic has mostly the same technology under the hood as Ethereum, with one big difference separating the two. Whereas Ethereum has a mutable blockchain – which has been purposefully modified and manipulated before – Ethereum Classic does not. When it comes to immutability, Ethereum Classic is superior to Ethereum, even though the price doesn’t reflect that at all.

More specifically, the Ethereum Classic price is a lot lower than Ethereum’s. Even at its current value of US$13.25, ETC is still a very small altcoin when compared to Ethereum. It is a bit unclear why this hasn’t evolved in a positive direction for ETC this year, despite the currency receiving some good exposure from Grayscale Investments. Instead, the Ethereum Classic price has been on a bit of a roller coaster this year, to say the very least.

In early January of this year, one ETC was valued at US$1.67. That’s a pretty low level, although everything was valued very differently back then. An initial uptrend manifested in May, and the current all-time high was reached over the summer. Ever since, the ride has gone mostly downhill for ETC. Just last week, the Ethereum Classic price dropped below US$10, albeit only briefly. Right now, that same ETC is worth US$13.25, thanks to a 9.32% increase over the past 24 hours.

This price movement hasn’t been driven by much in the way of trading volume either. While US$238 million in 24-hour volume is a lot higher than some altcoins in the top 10 right now, it is not exactly spectacular either. Then again, this shows how little money can make a meaningful impact on this market. Whether or not that is a good thing is up for debate. Right now, it has led to some solid increases, although they may only be temporary in nature.

No one will be surprised to learn that the recent Ethereum Classic momentum has been mainly driven by Korean speculators. Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit are all generating a lot more volume than any other cryptocurrency exchange. In fact, these three platforms alone generated 73% of all ETC trades during the past 24 hours. It seems that this is another pump-and-dump cycle similar to the one we saw with Bitcoin Cash last week. If the ETC price pump lasts for a few days, we may even see a new all-time high for this currency.

It is hard to tell what will happen with the Ethereum Classic price moving forward. There are a lot of uncertainties in this regard, as the current momentum is mainly fueled by speculation and a pump. This doesn’t mean Ethereum Classic has no inherent value on its own, but it seems people are far less excited about it these days. That situation may change at any given moment, which is part of what makes cryptocurrency so appealing.