Bitcoin Leaps 15 Percent To Its Highest Value Since November, But Why?
The cryptocurrency market has taken a beating over the past year, but if there is a Rocky Balboa among the bunch, it is undoubtedly Bitcoin, the virtual currency that just will not stay down. In fact, Bitcoin saw a sudden increase in value on Tuesday, rising 15 percent to $4,800. That is the highest value Bitcoin has seen since November.
At least one cryptocurrency exchange had Bitcoin trading even higher, at $5,000. As it stands at the time of this writing, Coinbase has it going for $4,745.62, which is up 14.73 percent (+$609.06) in the past 24 hours. If nothing else, this further underscores how volatile the cryptocurrency market has always been since it swung onto the mainstream radar.
So, what's happening to cause Bitcoin to rise in value so suddenly and sharply? That is a good question, and the subject of speculative analysis.
""Bitcoin has been trading range bound for a while now and shaking off some of the negative sentiment that it accrued in 2018," Charles Hayter, chief executive of digital currency comparison firm CryptoCompare, told CNBC.
"This trigger was through volume-led price action driving the price and triggering algos on a breakout."
He is referring to algorithmic trades, as speculators set up programs to pounce when the time is right. However, it still does not explain why it rose in the first place, to a level that would trigger algorithmic trades.
The truth is, there might not be a concrete explanation. This is how the cryptocurrency market goes, and though it crashed pretty hard last year, Bitcoin never hit rock bottom. Instead, it fell from a high of nearly $20,000 during a brief peak, to below $10,000, and then slowly declined over time to a yearlong low of around $3,500.
Sure, that is a precipitous drop. But even at $3,500, Bitcoin holds a lot of value, comparably. It also influences the cryptocurrency market at large. Ethereum, for example, is up 9.49 percent to $155.44 today, while Litecoin is up 16.33 percent to $70.33.
Investing in cryptocurrency is as risky as ever, however. It's obviously still volatile, but also subject to hacks and scams, as we have seen time again. In other words, caveat emptor if you're thinking about jumping back in (or investing in cryptocurrency for the first time).
