Boom! Over the past 24-hours, the price of
Bitcoin (BTC) has shot up by more than US$1,000 in an inexplicable price spike for the cryptocurrency. All of the other major digital currency players – including
Ethereum (ETH),
Ripple (XRP), and
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) have also seen jumps of between 5 and 9% of the last day.
Cardano (ADA) is up over 18% in daily trading.
Bitcoin rose from below US$7,000 to briefly reach a high of US$8,009.19 in an unprecedented surge that follows several months of steady decline.
It’s not yet clear what has caused the value to increase by such a large amount, with some analysts speculating that breaking the US$7,000 price point sparked a surge in Bitcoin investment.
The price gains represent more than a 10% increase since this time yesterday, and a 14 per cent increase week-on-week. Over the last 12 months, Bitcoin has risen by over 500 per cent in value.
At press time, Bitcoin was trading at around US$7,700 on the
Coinbase exchange.
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In recent weeks, Bitcoin has slowly fallen in value amid fears that the highs seen in late 2017 were the result of a bubble. At its peak last December, one Bitcoin was worth close to US$20,000.
Michael Jackson, the former COO of Skype who now works in the cryptocurrency industry as a General Partner at
Mangrove Capital Partners, said earlier this month, said the price of Bitcoin could return to its 2017 highs and even push beyond.
“The price has been driven by speculators and they suddenly got cold feet but there’s considerable effort going on behind the scenes, including new underlying technology that is powering faster transactions.”
He went on to say:
“Meanwhile, regulators seem open-minded and are now working to eliminate the risks for consumers. So, I see no reason why bitcoin shouldn’t fulfil its dream. And if it does then recent price falls will appear trivial."
This forecast comes in contrast to comments from economists at
Barclays Bank earlier this week, labelling Bitcoin’s 2017 price rise an ‘infection’ that spread like a disease. Such analysis would suggest that the falling price meant the disease had been treated and gains of that scale would not be seen again.
This latest surge does not appear to be related to any significant news within the cryptocurrency space, with some analysts suggesting the gains come from a simple change in sentiment amongst investors.