The price of bitcoin has jumped to near $7,600 on Sunday kicking off a positive rally of many altcoins including Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple’s RXP, and Bitcoin Cash bringing the overall market capitalization to about $25 billion, taking it over $200 billion for the first time this year. The world’s number one cryptocurrency is making a stunning nearly 100 per cent recovery after trading to an all-time low of below $3,500 earlier in January.
As at time of publishing this report on Monday, the price of bitcoin was at $7,283.01 on the Coindesk.com while in Nigeria it was trading at N2, 650,214 on the Luno platform from N2.3 million on Saturday.
Coindesk also noted that the cryptocurrency clawed back nearly a quarter of the losses since the drop from its all-time high in late 2017.
Since April, 2019, the price of bitcoin has soared by 40 per cent from about $5,000 to more than $7,000.
The price of other cryptocurrencies were also trading at higher percentages as at time of compiling this report.
Analysts have attributed the resurgence to increasing institutional investments in blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Smartphone giant, Samsung for instance announced that it is planning to include a cryptocurrency wallet in its Galaxy S10. HTC also disclosed on Saturday, 11 March that it is also including a cryptocurrency wallet in its Exodus 1s. Facebook, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs are all reported to be working on different blockchain projects.
Data from Whale Alert which tracks big cryptocurrency moves also reported the activities of the whales, a group of major bitcoin holders, who moved a staggering number of the cryptocurrency, resulting in the surge in the market. The biggest member of the whale is believed to have moved 47,000 bitcoin worth $343 million.
“Bitcoin has been building momentum,” said Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at eToro, a social trading firm, in an interview with CNBC. He predicted that prices could go as high as $50,000 or $100,000 given that bitcoin is still in the early part of its cycle. As at December 2017, the price of bitcoin was worth nearly $20,000 before it saw a massive slump.
