Bitcoin investors were in for a wild ride over the weekend, with the cryptocurrency trading below $3,700 and then an hour later trading around $4,135. This recent bitcoin price surge comes on an all-time high of $3,000 set a week ago.
While there’s no one reason why bitcoin surged so much over the weekend news from TechCrunch pointed to a handful of reasons. For starters, confidence in the virtual currency is increasing after bitcoin went through a so-called hard fork without suffering, and then a few days later it installed a code modification dubbed SegWit that fixes malleability issues as well as enables more transactions to be stored in each blockchain. Because of those confidence-boosting moves, TechCrunch speculated it drove the bitcoin price up over the weekend.
Another reason for the cryptocurrency surge, according to TechCrunch, is the initial coin offering (ICO) mania that is taking hold. According to the news report, so far the amount of money startups have raised via initial coin offerings are more than what a company can raise at an early stage venture capital firm.
Filecoin raised $180 million in a few hours via an ICO, reported TechCrunch. Because investors have to convert money to bitcoin or another virtual currency to take part in an ICO, it drives the price of the digital currency higher.
Finally, TechCrunch reported there is a obsession with bitcoin on Wall Street, with story after story flooding the airwaves and the internet. Often the bulls are pounding the table about the impending increase in the price of bitcoin, which is also aiding in the price marching higher.
Two weeks ago, Bitcoin split its digital currency into bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. According to news reports from CNBC, the split occurred when a minority of developers moved ahead with an alternative upgrade proposal. Investors that had bitcoin at the time of the split received an equal amount of Bitcoin Cash.
ByPYMNTS
