Bitcoin and the top altcoins have reached new all-time highs as Ethereum and Ripple both climbed 20 percent.

"The broad uptick in the top 10 cryptocurrency table began on Thursday with multiple altcoins seeing sudden gains. Dash, Monero and Golem also posted double-figure growth for the 24 hours to press time on Friday."

Bitcoin’s growth was comparatively modest at just under two percent, but Coinbase nonetheless managed to post a new record price high of just over $1,350.

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An interesting exception to the trend came in the form of Litecoin, which had previously exploded in value upon news that Segregated Witness technology would activate.

As the rest grew, Litecoin remained stagnant, even posting a modest loss of around 0.8 percent overall.

"The Ethereum ecosystem, meanwhile, is capitalizing on the launch of another major economic tool which should help bring it to new audiences."

The Ethereum Classic Fund, run by Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group, officially went live this week, causing a predictable surge in the price of the Ethereum Classic token (ETC).

Ether itself (ETH) appeared to profit from a knock-on effect, with its own dedicated exchange-traded fund (ETF) currently under consideration by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Both versions are currently at all-time price highs.

Lesser announcements came from the Ripple camp this week, with another 10 financial institutions signing up to its gateway.

The network already counts members such as JPMorgan Chase and BNP Paribas, the former also signaling this week it had pulled out of so-called distributed ledger group R3 Consortium.