Ethereum’s growth has been helped this year by decentralized finance, a suite of non-custodial trading and lending protocols into which traders have locked $71.5 billion. "NFT projects like CryptoPunks have also helped. While the craze around non-fungibles has largely subsided, the average price of CryptoPunks has increased by 53% over the past week after a number of Ethereum whales started snatching them up on Friday. About 16,000 ETH ($41.5 million) of CryptoPunks changed hands yesterday, up from 709 ETH ($1.8 million) last Saturday." [https://decrypt.co/77400/ethereum-price-surpasses-2600-while-bitcoin-growth-slows-down?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=auto](https://decrypt.co/77400/ethereum-price-surpasses-2600-while-bitcoin-growth-slows-down?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=auto)