It’s done it again, folks. Bitcoin continues to impress us all. After just a few short days, bitcoin has shot past the $8,000 mark, giving us its highest prices in nearly a year.
Rise, Rise, Rise!
The currency had already impressed most traders with its run to $7,000 over the weekend. This was unexpected, considering many analysts believed the currency would likely remain in the $5,000 range, where it had been trading for the past several weeks. The currency has been on a roll since early April of this year, reaching $5,000, then $6,000, followed by $7,000 and now $8,000 over the past 24 hours.
But we must consider that there’s still plenty of room to move if bitcoin is every going to reach its all-time high again. Bitcoin was trading for just shy of $20,000 in December of 2017. During that time, many enthusiasts thought the currency couldn’t be stopped, and that bullish behavior was likely to dominate bitcoin’s path for many years to come.
Unfortunately, things fell apart almost as quickly as they were put together. The currency fell to $16,000 the following month after the Coincheck hack in Japan. Coincheck marked the largest cryptocurrency exchange hack in the history of the space. From there, it fell to $12,000 and then $11,000 the following month, ultimately finishing out February at an even $9,000.
By the summer, bitcoin was trading in the $6,000 range. The currency remained here until Thanksgiving of last year, when it fell to the mid-$3,000 range following a controversial bitcoin cash hard fork that pitted many industry leaders against each other. It was an ugly sight, and many had cause to believe that bitcoin would never recover, but recover it has.
In many ways, we’re in a prime position considering bitcoin is now trading near where it fell in March of 2018. In that sense, bitcoin has recovered greatly, but we’re still nowhere near the $20,000 mark, which means there’s plenty of room for crypto to play.
Is There Any Cause for Concern?
In addition, we must remain cautious and open-minded. As we all remember, 2017 was marked with heavy spikes in prices for bitcoin and related cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin was shooting up on a weekly basis, much like how we’re seeing now. The following year, it incurred several drops at once, likely because it simply rose too fast. While it’s too early to tell, one can’t help but be a bit concerned that the results of bitcoin’s latest behavior are another sign of market manipulation, which is alleged to have caused the massive jumps and subsequent drops of both 2017 and 2018 respectively.
For now, however, bitcoin is doing quite well, so maybe we can all just sit back for a while and relish in the sights of everybody’s favorite cryptocurrency rising through the ranks once again.