Ethereum broke through $1,000 for the first time in trading Thursday and Ripple XRP hit new highs as investor interest in alternative cryptocurrencies continues to grow in the new year.

The surges came as 2017’s darling, bitcoin, continues to vacillate up and down. Ripple, which surpassed Ethereum to become the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization Dec. 31, hit a record high of $3.79 at one point Thursday. Then cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Inc. issued a statement denying rumors that it would be adding support for XRP trading anytime soon, resulting in a drop to $3.18 as of 9 p.m. EST.

Although many exchanges do currently offer XRP trading, a listing on Coinbase is seen by some as adding additional legitimacy to a cryptocurrency as well as boosting its prospects. Bitcoin Cash surged on its debut on Coinbase in December, though part of that surge may have been because of insider trading.

On the Ethereum front, prices peaked at a new record high at $1,045.08 just after midday EST before settling back to $1,006.90 as of 9 p.m. As Forbes correctly noted, “it’s hard to say for certain what is causing the 8 percent pop in Ethereum prices,” although the article does suggest that interest by banks in using the Ethereum Blockchain, as opposed to the cryptocurrency, may be partially driving growing confidence investors have in ETH.

Bitcoin itself chugged on its merry way, its price rising from $13,322 on Jan. 1 to $15,161.77 as of 9 p.m. Although some observers, such as CoinDesk, are describing the price increase as bitcoin holding on to “bullish territory,” the current price is in the same price where bitcoin started on Dec. 23 and is still well down from previous highs close to $20,000.

By market cap, XRP continues to head toward bitcoin, now sitting on $123 billion according to figures from Coinmarketcap, to bitcoin’s $256 billion. Ethereum sits in third place with a market cap of $97 billion.

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