Ether jumped 7% on Wednesday to briefly breach the market capitalisation of $500 billion, as per data from CoinMarketCap. The cryptocurrency, which has surged almost 500% this year, also surpassed the $4,300 level to hit a record high of $4,372. Ether, also referred to as Ethereum, has outperformed world’s largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin, which has almost doubled in price this year.