The price of bitcoin has reached another all-time high this week touching an average of $6,420 across popular exchanges. The decentralized currency continues to rise upwards this year, the value of one bitcoin has climbed more than 500 percent in 2017.
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The Decentralized Cryptocurrency Bitcoin Reaches Another All-Time High
2017 has become bitcoin’s year of consecutive all-time highs (ATH), and the currency’s value hasn’t slowed down yet. At press time, bitcoin traders have swapped over $2B in BTC trade volume over the course of the past 24-hours. Additionally, since the price surpassed the most recent $6,300 ATH, the bitcoin economy has added another $5B to its market capitalization. Since then the price has dropped a bit, and is currently hovering around the $6,320-6,360 range. Many people think that individuals are buying bitcoin at an exponential rate due to the upcoming Segwit2x forks. News.Bitcoin.com spoke with Crypto Compare’s Charles Hayter who believes the expectation of getting a 1:1 Segwit2x payout is driving a lot of demand.
“This has led to the expectation that forks are a good thing as by hiving of fanatical elements progress can be driven forward more swiftly as well as the opportunity for private key holders to have stakes in both chains with their independent policies and tenets,” Hayter tells news.Bitcoin.com.
The result is demand buying bitcoin and price moves prior to the fork as participants clamour to claim their free money with Illiquid futures markets acting as proxy for value. The value depends on the community assessment of the veracity of the plan which often are marketing drives combined with overtures based around one key point.
Last Month’s Demand Stemmed from Japan and the Previous Fork
The same situation took place during the Bitcoin Cash hard fork this past August which led to quite a bit of bitcoin trade volume and increased value. After the fork, bitcoin’s price remained stable and then continued to rise further a few days later. Additionally, Japan is bringing a lot of bitcoin demand to the table, as the yen is still dominating markets by 62 percent. Moreover, bitcoin enthusiasts also believe the bitcoin gold fork pushed BTC to its most recent $6,180 ATH.
“The lure of free bitcoin gold is thought to have contributed to the recent rise to $6200,” Hayter emphasizes.
The capacity for the crypto-community to create value out of ‘thin air’ is well founded. The ability of Bitcoin forks certainly has a lifespan but investors, opportunists and the community will most likely lose their appetite for such hard forks as it is logical to focus innovation on one primary chain.
While Bitcoin’s Price Continues to Rise Altcoin Valuations Slump
Over the course of the next fifteen days until the fork, traders are forecasting the price to cross $7K or higher. At the moment, that prediction doesn’t seem too far off, but traders are fully aware that the aftermath of this specific fork could be entirely different than last August’s fork. Furthermore, the BTC rise has definitely affected altcoins who are not experiencing the traditional price spikes they usually get when BTC rallies. This confirms the theory that traders are dumping altcoins for BTC to get in on the possible 1:1 Segwit2x token distribution in two weeks.
What do you think about bitcoin’s price reaching yet another ATH? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Images via Shutterstock, Bitstamp, and Charles Hayter.
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