In less than 24 hours after smashing through the psychological $10,000 limit, bitcoin price has surged by another 10.4%, reaching a high of $11,485 before retreating, and is currently trading at $11,163 at the time of writing this post.
Fig.1: Bitcoin price - Nov. 29, 2017; 12:00 GMT (Source: coinmarketcap.com)
As of late, Bitcoin has been getting through significant price limits every few couple of days, with the pace quickening since the end of the week. It took the cryptocurrency barely two weeks to go from $7,000 to $8,000, only seven days to reach $9,000, and only two days to break through $10,000 and $11,000.
Most of the surge resulted from the increased interest of financial investors in cryptocurrencies. For instance; The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) plans to introduce bryptocurrency futures by December. Money Street bank JPMorgan (a Wall Street Bank) is making plans to enable trades on bitcoin futures by its clients. A few investors are also purchasing and launching their own cryptocurrency funds.
Other factors having catalytic effects on the phenomenal price increase of bitcoin include; heavy media buzz, the numerous bitcoin forks that have happened this year, mass adoption of cryptocurrencies as a store of money value by citizens in countries facing hyperinflation like Zimbabwe and South Africa and bold predictions about future price, for example, on Tuesday 28th No., 2017, former hedge fund manager and investor Mike Novogratz said, “Bitcoin might easily be worth $40,000 by the end of 2018.”
And even though the cost may appear to be extravagantly high to some, people in general are running to purchase bitcoins at a remarkable rate. Coinbase, one of the biggest Bitcoin exchanges recorded over 100,000 new accounts in a single day, directly after CME, the world's biggest futures exchange, said it would launch Bitcoin futures by the end of the year.
The brilliant ascent additionally influenced other significant cryptocurrencies, which are generally in the green today. The combined market cap of all cryptocurrencies has hit a new high of $337 billion, with Bitcoin's market capitalization now over $186 billion and its nearest rival, Ethereum now over $48 billion and currently trading at $501 per Ethereum.
Fig.2: Top 10 cryptocurrencies - January. 1, 2017; 12:00 GMT (Source: coinmarketcap.com)
Fig.3: Top 10 cryptocurrencies – November 29, 2017; 12:00 GMT (Source: coinmarketcap.com)
With everything taken into account, 2017 has been an exceptionally wonderful year for cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin climbed about 1,159% from the beginning of the year, when it was exchanging at around $963, and the total cryptocurrency market value has increased from $17 billion to $337 billion (1982%) in the same period of time.
Regardless of the rumors and warnings that bitcoin is in a bubble, its price has strongly continued to surge, and based on discussions I’ve had with clients, I can say that an ever-increasing number of individuals are beginning to see bitcoin as cash and a potential replacement for the present fiat central banking framework that has become quite crazy.
So, for all those who followed my predictions and invested in Bitcoin, I want to say a big congratulations on your profits, but for all those who ignored it completely, hate to say “I told you so”. The good news however is that it’s not yet too late.
You can also see my post on the best cryptocurrencies to invest in before 2018 here. Most of them have already gone up seriously since I made the post.