"The market is realizing how fundamentally undervalued Ether is given all the development activity on the network," said Vijay Ayyar, head of Asia Pacific at crypto exchange Luno Pte.

"While one may think Ether has risen a lot, when you compare it to Bitcoin, there is a long way to go."

Ayyar sees Ether hitting $5,000 to $10,000 by early next year. Evercore ISI technical strategist Rich Ross has revised up his target to $4,100 from $3,900. Many traders are eyeing a run toward $10,000 before the end of 2021, Edward Moya, a senior market analyst at Oanda Corp., wrote in a note.

"Ether will have much volatility, similar to Bitcoin, but can increase in value as more institutional investors become aware of it," Pat LaVecchia, chief executive officer of crypto broker Oasis Pro Markets LLC, wrote in an email. Ether at $25,000 is possible over the next few years, he said.

The recent surge has pushed Ethereum's market capitalization above $400 billion. That's larger than Walmart and just shy of JPMorgan...