By
Steve Muchoki
April 18th, 2024
Given the current growth rate, it’s very possible that the price of the digital currency may achieve $10,000 by the end of the year.
Update on November 28th, 2017: Bitcoin price has just reached its historical all-time high by breaking the $10,000 barrier. Read more about it here.
Bitcoin continues to break new records, rising above $9,500 for the first time in its history. The world’s leading virtual currency surpassed the mark on Saturday night and kept growing throughout the day, hitting a historic maximum of $9522 at 18:59 UTC on Sunday.
At press time, bitcoin is trading at $9,480, while its market cap is already more than $158 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data. As bitcoin reaches new highs, the market cap of all digital currencies has surged to a record high of over $296 billion and is gradually moving towards $300 billion.
Overall, the digital currency experienced huge growth in 2017, showing almost a tenfold increase from the beginning of the year. If the current trend continues, bitcoin can easily reach $10,000 in the upcoming weeks.
The surge is attributed to several factors, including increased interest from institutional investors, planned release of bitcoin futures trading, and further growth of cryptocurrency users. CME group, which is planning to launch bitcoin futures in December, is the world’s leading derivatives marketplace. The coming launch is expected to further drive the cryptocurrency user base.
Besides, it is worth noting that the largest bitcoin exchange in the United States, Coinbase, registered about 100,000 new accounts last week, thus reaching more than 13 million accounts. According to experts, the growth was driven by an increased investor interest around the Thanksgiving holiday and Black Friday shopping.
While some market watchers believe bitcoin is in a bubble, others are more optimistic about the future of the digital currency. According to hedge fund manager, Mike Novogratz, bitcoin will reach $10,000 by the end of the year. Standpoint Research’s Ronnie Moas has recently updated his predictions, saying the cryptocurrency will hit $14,000 in 2018. Meanwhile, Fundstrat’s Thomas Lee predicts the price to climb to $11,500 by the middle of 2018.
Another digital currency ethereum also surged to an all-time high of $485 on Saturday, but has later decreased and is now worth $470, CoinMarketCap shows.
Meantime, the price of bitcoin gold, a new cryptocurrency that was created after the bitcoin hard fork event, is steadily growing as well. After debuting on CoinMarketCap, the digital currency has managed to overcome such major cryptocurrencies as litecoin, dash, and monero. Currently, it is standing at around $365, according to the website.
The main reason behind the price spike is the recent launch of BTG on major cryptocurrency exchanges Bithumb and Bitfinex. The digital currency has already been available on Bittrex, HitBTC, and Binance platforms.