Bitcoin price has hit its new high this year by breaking through $10,000 for the first time in 15 months.
The most prominent digital currency in the world surpassed the $10,000 mark roughly at 07:30 p.m. EDT, and went on to extend these gains in the following hours. At the time of this writing, the crypto price was trading at $10,755.39, according to coinmarketcap.
A Strong Surge In The Past Several Months
The past several months has seen the cryptocurrency follow a strong upward trend after climbing more than 230% since December when it reached a local low of roughly $3,100.
Analysts have tried to explain the reasons for Bitcoin’s recent bullishness. For instance, Mati Greenspan, an eToro senior analyst tweeted some of the fundamentals driving the Bitcoin price higher citing institutional adoption, the upcoming Bitcoin supply halving as well as more monetary easing from central banks. He also noted that pure momentum could also be driving the leading crypto to its fresh yearly highs.
Other analysts have pointed out factors like optimistic media coverage, strong market sentiment and the widespread hype around the release of Facebook’s own cryptocurreny – Libra.
The Impact of Facebook’s Crypto – Libra
The release of the details about Facebooks cryptocurrency, Libra, appears to have returned the digital currencies back to the mainstream. Libra is now a very hot topic even if it is yet to be officially launched.
Libra is expected to drive more people to start using cryptocurrencies as an actual payment method instead of treating them as a short-term trading opportunity for get-rich-quick investors.
The media frenzy that followed the release of the Libra coin has made Libra dominate the traditional financial business news cycle which in turn led to a quick response from the public including business leaders and major governments. All these exposure and discussions about Libra being expected to be Bitcoin’s main rival has led to Bitcoin entering the mainstream news discussion too.
David Martin, the CEO of Blockforce Capital strongly feels that Libra can be largely attributed to the Bitcoin rally being currently witnessed. While he believes that Libra will generate a lot of interest in cryptos and that this new digital coin will differ from Bitcoin in several major ways, he said that the overall public interest behind the project is the driving force behind the rising price of Bitcoin.
Marouane Garcon, the managing director of Amulet, a crypto-crypto derivatives platform, described the Facebook crypto as “America’s ‘WeChat moment” and added that Bitcoin has and will go on benefitting from Libra’s hype and success. He stated that people are currently loading up in anticipation of the official launch of the coin next year and added that the Libra frenzy has led to positive media coverage concerning the implementation of blockchain and cryptocurrencies by big brands and companies which is a plus for the industry.
Bakkt Close To Launching ‘Moonshot’
Meanwhile, Bakkt – an ICE- owned Bitcoin futures exchange, has announced that it will launch Bitcoin futures testing next month. The launch is expected to be one of the major catalysts expected for this year’s Bitcoin price.