By
Temitope Olatunji
April 18th, 2024
Bitcoin crossed $18,000 as it points towards an all-time high of $20,000. The last time Bitcoin traded a $20,000 was in December 2017. Altcoins have started following BTC on its way to new record levels.
As Bitcoin heads to its all-time high, ETH, XRP, and other altcoins are also on a steady rise. On the 23rd of November, ETH, XRP, and several other digital assets pulled in increases before trading closed.
ETH climbed a new high since June 2018 to $600 in the early hours of trading on the day. Currently, ETH is up 6.03% to $613.10 with a 24-hour trading volume of $24,275,309,820. In addition, the second-ranked digital asset has a market capitalization of over $70 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Also on the 23rd, Ripple‘s XRP jumped 29% to hit its highest level in over two years. Since then, the Ripple token has pulled in additional increases. At press time, XRP is up 50.19% to $0.69. As noted by CoinMarketCap, XRP has added 48.29% over the past 24 hours.
Other Altcoins Join Bitcoin on Price Rally
Recently, Bitcoin crossed $18,000 as it points towards an all-time high of $20,000. The last time Bitcoin traded a $20,000 was in December 2017 before declining to around $3,000 in the following year. Now, however, analysts are confident that BTC would hit its new high before the end of 2020. Also, the analysts said that BTC is poised to further growth in 2021.
Speaking to CNBC, London-based crypto mining firm Argo Blockchain CEO Peter Wall said:
“What you generally see in the space is bitcoin goes on a run and then a period of time later- might be a few weeks, might be a month- the altcoins then go on a run. Bitcoin leads and the altcoins follow.”
CNBC further noted that Chainlink also joined BTC and other altcoins in the rally. According to the report, Chainlink grew 6% to around $15 on the 23rd of November. The altcoin has also surged 740% in its year-to-date record. At the time of writing, Chainlink (LINK) is trading at $16.16 with a 9.13% increase.
Bullish Prediction on Bitcoin for 2021
As Bitcoin’s constant increase influences other altcoins’ increases, there are more bullish predictions on the king coin. Bitcoin analyst and the creator of the stone-to-flow model PlanB said Bitcoin’s “real jump” would begin by 2021. PlanB revealed his opinion in a tweet on the 22nd of November. The analyst expressed his confidence in BTC to hit “100k-288k” before December, 2021.
In addition, PlanB noted that a lot of long-term investors are acquiring Bitcoin. In a tweet, he said buyers are now holding on to their assets and “most BTC sold will never see the daylight again.”
Buttressing PlanB’s idea, Pantera Capital said in a recent letter that PayPal and Square’s Cash App are the causes of the BTC price spike. Pantera Capital added that the two companies are buying and hoarding large amounts of BTC, hence the shortage of the digital asset which is leading to the constant increase of BTC.