Bitcoin has finally surpassed the US$3000 per BTC average across global exchanges. In fact, it didn’t stop there and touched an all-time high of $3230 during the start of August 5. The decentralized cryptocurrency now commands a hefty $51.9 billion market cap while trading platforms are currently seeing intense exchange volumes at $1.6 billion USD/BTC trades over the past 24-hours.
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Bitcoin is Trending Worldwide
On August 5 bitcoin surpassed the $3000 USD per BTC threshold on the trading platform Bitstamp. Smashing the $3000 vantage point was not enough for bitcoin as BTC prices touched an all-time high of $3230. At press time one BTC is roughly $3150 as traders take some profits from the overnight high. Some speculate that the price spike may be due to BIP141 voting period ending and the possibility of activating the protocol Segregated Witness (Segwit). Currently, a vast quantity of the network’s hashrate is directing its efforts towards this plan as the first half of the “New York Agreement” otherwise known as Segwit2x. At the moment, there are 621 blocks left until Segwit goes live on the Bitcoin network. The second half of the agreement entails activating a 2MB hard fork on the network roughly ~3 months after the activation.
It’s also worth noting that the price has rallied during the latest announcement from global law enforcement detailing the takedown of the two biggest darknet markets Hansa, and Alphabay. Alongside this, the BTC-e exchange was also seized and the price didn’t nudge at all. It seems bitcoin markets have been resilient enough to bounce back after the Bitfinex hack last year, the recent ETF decision, and now the latest two darknet market takedowns also did nothing to the price.
In addition to this, the price spiked in the midst of a hard fork. The developers of the client Bitcoin ABC and others have veered off to form its own network. This, in turn, produced a new token called ‘Bitcoin Cash’ (BCH) which has an 8MB block size limit, and also removes Segregated Witness. Even though the blockchain split occurred on August 1 and the two bitcoin communities went separate ways, the price of BTC has remained extremely bullish. As bitcoin touched a high of $3230 across global exchanges BCH tokens have hit a low of $200-250 depending on the exchange.
The digital asset bitcoin has come a long way since the first issuance of bitcoins were released into the wild on January 3rd, 2009. Now there are 16.4 million BTC in circulation, and the cryptocurrency is more popular than ever. As far as the Google Trends site is concerned interest in bitcoin has grown exponentially higher than its jump in growth during 2013. Google Trends also shows a significant amount of interest is stemming from the eastern side of the world, most notably in Asia, and many countries located within the continent of Africa.
Record Trade Volumes
Furthermore, Localbitcoins volumes across the globe are also at all-time highs right now as people are trading over $20-30 million worth of bitcoins every two weeks. Alongside Localbitcoins and traditional exchange volumes reaching new highs, both Paxful and the decentralized trading platform Bitsquare are also seeing record trade volumes. Moreover, countries such as China, Japan, India, and Korea are dominating bitcoin trade volumes as cryptocurrencies have been high demand in those regions.
Bitcoin Printed in Newspapers Worldwide
As bitcoin’s value broke higher levels and crossed the $3K price zone, mainstream media has been reporting on the digital currency’s success nearly every day. On top of that, bitcoin stories are being printed in newspapers all around the world, in publications like Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Wall Street Journal, Dagens Næringsliv, the Moscow Times and more. The mainstream exposure has led to more people around the world hearing about bitcoin as well as attracting investment.
Celebrities, Socialites, and Big Name Investors Talk Bitcoin
In unison with the mainstream media headlines coming out every day, many famous celebrities, socialites and big name investors are also talking about bitcoin. Just recently the Shark Tank star Mark Cuban discussed the decentralized currency with his Twitter followers. Alongside this, more well-known individuals such as Chamath Palihapitiya, Dan Bilzerian, John Bollinger, Jeremy Liew and many others have been observed discussing bitcoin’s potential.
The Bitcoin Economy Grows Bigger Every Day
Right now it’s estimated that more than ten million people worldwide hold a material amount of bitcoin according to the University of Cambridge. 2.9 to 5.8 million users are actively using their bitcoin wallets, and the total number of wallets used in 2017 has increased 4X since 2013. Furthermore, the Bitcoin network hashrate is processing at over five exahash per second as mining power has increased exponentially. Nearly every statistic in bitcoin’s life has spiked massively over the past year.
It’s a great milestone for bitcoin to cross the $3000 USD per BTC territory but there are many other landmark occasions taking place often across the network. 2017 has been one of the most interesting years so far and the next six months will surely be filled with more excitement. $3000 is just one of many price records to break as many bitcoin proponents believe the rise in value is just getting started.
What do you think about bitcoin crossing the $3000 per BTC range? Let us know in the comments below.
Images via Pixabay, Warner Bros., Süddeutsche Zeitung, and Bitcoin Wisdom.
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