Bitcoin Breaks $8,000 And Another New Record

Cryptocurrency keeps going from strength-to-strength.

Bitcoin hit another new record over the weekend, and then again on November 20, after rising above the vaunted $8,000 mark. The new price of a single bitcoin has gone through an amazing 50% climb in under 10 days!

The question it seems isn’t whether Bitcoin will break the much vaunted $10,000 mark any more, or even when. It’s more a question of how quickly it will get there, with some speculating that it could be the end of the year. The new level means that Bitcoin has risen by some 700% so far, this year alone.

The resurgent rally for Bitcoin came on the back of a large sell-off just two Sundays ago, when the price of Bitcoin fell to around $5,500.  The current relentless rally is continuing to confound the digital currency’s skeptics, who have been warning of bubbles and crashes for several months now; none of which seems to have have had any real impact as Bitcoin’s stock continues to grow. 

Will Bitcoin break $10,000 before Christmas? Time will tell.

Value spiked at $242 billion 

According to CoinDesk and data gathered from its Bitcoin Price Index (BPI) the price “climbed to $8,101.91 between 20:00 and 20:15 UTC. This move came after BGitcoin – which steadied near the $8,000 line during Friday trading – crossed that threshold several hours earlier.”  The overall “market cap” of all the combined cryptocurrencies has also hit an all-time high (boosted mainly by the strong showing of Bitcoin) to over $242 billion on Monday, according to trade website Coinmarketcap. 

Wall Street

Even as critics continues to call the cryptocurrency asset a bubble long overdue to burst, Wall Street has shown a resurgent interest in recent weeks. For instance, CME Group Inc., the world’s biggest exchange, is to start offering futures trading using Bitcoin in December.    

It’s hard to remember now, but a mere 11 months ago, a single bitcoin was only worth around $1,000, and it was only in August that even positive analysts thought it would be the middle of 2018 before the currency could hit the $5,000 mark. Back in August, with the price at $3,500, analysts were being bullish by claiming Bitcoin might clear $5,000 next year.