Bitcoin shoryuken’d through $4,000 for the first time on Monday, jumping 15% over Friday’s close to a peak of $4,125.17. The spike was credited to strong Japanese demand for the cryptocurrency amid tensions between the U.S. and North Korea, as well as a successful technology upgrade by Bitcoin to speed up transactions by shifting a portion of transaction data off the main network – a solution termed SegWit2x.
“Bitcoin is benefitting from geopolitical tensions – trading in Japan and Korea has increased significantly over the last few months,” Brian Kelly, a CNBC contributor and head of BKCM, which runs an digital asset strategy, said in an email. –CNBC
The digital currency has quadrupled in 2017 – up 40% in August alone, and has a market value of around $64 billion.
The plan was met with skepticism, with some suggesting the move might ‘break’ bitcoin. Concerned investors in the #1 cryptocurrency even created their own new version of the asset called Bitcoin Cash.
The split grew out of the tension between growing demand for the virtual currency and some of the design features that had fueled that popularity — the decentralized verification procedures that ensured against hacking and government oversight. While this month’s confrontation ended up as little more than a speed bump in bitcoin’s more than 300 percent rally in 2017, concerns remain around the capacity to increase transaction volumes.
“Up until now a lot of people didn’t really believe bitcoin could go any higher until the scaling issue is resolved,” said Arthur Hayes, Hong Kong-based founder of bitcoin exchange BitMEX. “With this actually being implemented on protocol, theoretically the amount of transactions that can be processed at a reasonable speed is going to be much higher, so a lot of people are very bullish about bitcoin now.” –Bloomberg
While Bitcoin’s upgrade to SegWit2x was successful, the cryptocurrency has another hurdle in November, as the ‘block size’ is set to double to 2 megabiyes, while others have argued that the “Bitcoin Cash” spinoff currency has obviated the need for another upgrade.
Enough technobabble nobody here understands – who’s been banking bitcoins in these parts?
Canary in the coal mine? Getting out of control and scary.
So many tulip bulbs and such wide variety. Mirror, mirror, which tulip is the best looking..?
So many scrubs comparing it tulips with no knowledge of mathematics and theory of computer science
Sad.
Enjoy liftoff 2 the moon from the side lines
Trash. Every time someone gets butthurt over Bitcoin they go off an create their own digital currency and exchanges. The gold miners of the 1800s didn’t have the opportunity to create more mountains, streams and mines once they’ve mined the current ones dry. Easy replication will destroy the premise. All smoke and mirrors.
I have humbly partaken in this lotto. #YOLOsWaG420
If BTC breaks 4400 we’ll see 7k and then possibly 10k. I’ve blogged about BTC on ibc for months.
MGTI is up 16%. GBTC up 20%.
I own BTC, BCH and MGTI.
In? Indeed.
$365 trillion in all major asset classes in the world.
$138 billion all cryptocurrencies in the world
that’s
$365,000,000,000,000 – all assets
$138,000,000,000 – all cryptocurrencies
that’s
99.962% – all assets
00.038% – all cryptocurrencies
00.019% – all Bitcoin
Just a wag; it hasn’t hit maximum adoption.
You poor dumb bastards;
you poo pooed it at $1000
you scoffed at $2,000
you didn’t even know it hit $3000
now it’s at $4000
You still have no clue what it is. You just know it’s bad. oooohh people buy drugs with it.
WTF are you waiting for?
Put in your 20 hrs (min) of due diligence and get in the game.
Don’t whine when it hits $5000, $10,000, who knows $100,000
I’m watching this now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_QzUHhMqLs