Bitcoin broke through $9,000 early today, then continued its price rally to reach several fresh, all-time highs.
The digital currency rose to as much as $9,484.94 on the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (BPI).
At this level, Bitcoin had climbed more than 875% year-to-date, additional BPI figures show.
This latest record – which put bitcoin within 6% of reaching $10,000 – simply represents the latest in a string of highs that Bitcoin has reached in 2017.
[Ed note: Investing in cryptocoins or tokens is highly speculative and the market is largely unregulated. Anyone considering it should be prepared to lose their entire investment.]
Growing Interest In Crypto
The digital currency has experienced sharp gains at a time when interest in the broader cryptocurrency space has skyrocketed.
The total market capitalization of these digital assets has risen to more than $290 billion this year, according to CoinMarketCap, representing a more than 1,500% increase this year.
As for where digital currencies will go next, it is anyone’s guess. Several market observers have voiced concerns that cryptocurrencies have entered a bubble, likening their sharp rise in value to the impressive gains that technology stocks experienced during the 1990s.
Others, however, have expressed a different point of view, predicting that digital currency values will go “to the moon.”
$10,000: The Next Price Target
As for where Bitcoin will go next, several analysts previously identified $10,000 as a key, psychological price level.
Earlier this month when Bitcoin was trading around $7,300, Arthur Hayes, co-founder and CEO of BitMEX, stated:
“The only two levels that matter are $10,000 and $5,000. The rest is just noise.”
Charles Hayter, co-founder and CEO of digital currency platform CryptoCompare, also weighed in on Bitcoin’s next price level.
“10k is in the cards and bitcoin seems to be straining at the leash to reach it,” he stated, adding that “Institutional flows will push it past the mark soon.”