Bitcoin had once again rallied to new heights after the digital currency achieved a new all-time record high of $8,200 during trading Monday.
Figures from CoinMarketCap show that the digital currency is trading up 5.05 percent over a 24-hour period, pushing its value to $8,247 at 15:04 UTC. As can be seen from the chart below, this has catapulted bitcoin’s market value up to a new high of $137.6 billion.
Over a seven-day period, the cryptocurrency has risen 26.36 percent in value. Such an increase has seen the combined crypto market price soar to $243.7 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.
These latest prices are in stark contract to how bitcoin was trading a week ago.
Last weekend, the digital currency was trading at $5,500 after it had previously reached a then-new all-time record high of $7,800. A plummet in value was due to the suspension of SegWit2x. However, since then the market has regained confidence in the currency.
The new price milestone comes at a time when Goldman Sachs was reported at the beginning of November as stating that bitcoin could reach $8,000. With that figure now being achieved many are looking to see where it will head to next. Ronnie Moas, analyst and founder of Standpoint Research, believes that it has the potential to reach $11,000 in 2018. With the trajectory that the digital currency is on at the moment, this seems highly possible.
Several factors can be seen that are helping to boost the market – in particular bitcoin’s value – up.
One is the announcement from CME that is will be launching its bitcoin futures contract in the second week of December. Since the news of CME’s intentions, U.K. hedge fund, Man Group, has said that it will add cryptocurrencies to its ‘investment universe‘ if the launch goes ahead. Last week, Luke Ellis, CEO of Man Group, said:
Conceptually digital currencies are an interesting thing. It’s not part of our investment universe today – it could be. If there is a CME future on bitcoin, it would be.
Another indicator that may have helped bump bitcoin’s price up relates to the fact that despite the SegWit2x cancellation, a small percentage of miners still signalled for its activation. However, the fork hasn’t taken place – or has yet to take place – with suggestions that a bug in the code prevented it from working.
Yet, despite this the currency’s value is on the rise as all eyes remain on it with many speculating as to where it will hit next.