We prove sharp smoothing properties of the averaging operator defined by convolution with a measure on a smooth nondegenerate curve
$\gamma $
in
$\mathbb R^d$
,
$d\ge 3$
. Despite the simple geometric structure of such curves, the sharp smoothing estimates have remained largely unknown except for those in low dimensions. Devising a novel inductive strategy, we obtain the optimal
$L^p$
Sobolev regularity estimates, which settle the conjecture raised by Beltran–Guo–Hickman–Seeger [1]. Besides, we show the sharp local smoothing estimates on a range of p for every
$d\ge 3$
. As a result, we establish, for the first time, nontrivial
$L^p$
boundedness of the maximal average over dilations of
$\gamma $
for
$d\ge 4$
.