A wind of madness has been blowing for a few weeks on the small world of crypto-currencies. Bitcoin, Dash, Litecoin, Ripple or Ethereum are currently experiencing an explosion of their course. Thus, the bitcoin saw its price surpassed the symbolic bar of $ 2,000 this week even though in March it had risen sharply from $ 1,200 to $ 900 and that at the end of last year it was around $ 700. The same goes for ether (the crypto-currency related to Ethereum) that went from $ 14 a year ago to $ 138 at the time of writing this article. The same could be said for Dash who spent in one year from $ 8 to $ 99 or Litecoin who spent the same period of $ 4 to $ 27. This trend can be explained in several ways, this is what we will see!
Popularization and democratization
For several months the technology underlying crypto-currencies, the blockchain, is on everyone's lips. There is much talk about it in the banking and insurance sector, which feels threatened by this new technology that can eventually eliminate them, but we hear about them now in all sectors, be it energy, The industry or retail, all feel concerned by the disruption capabilities of the blockchain. Indeed, this interest in this technology implies that more and more people are also interested in the crypto-currencies that have popularized it.
Bitcoin, founded in 2009, has also demonstrated that it is robust in time, it has now been 8 years that the network is functioning and that it is federating more and more participants. Remember that what makes the success of a crypto-currency is above all the number of people who participate and have confidence in the network, it is also what makes it its value. It thus becomes an asset in which individuals feel more inclined to invest to test, use or speculate. Bitcoin has somehow won his Golden Letters in the eyes of the general public making it more acceptable as an investment medium. This has a beneficial effect for the other crypto-currencies that take advantage of the positive halo surrounding Bitcoin.
And it will never have been so simple and affordable to get "corners" whatever the medium. Marketplaces now allow you to buy them by credit card or by making a simple international transfer, in a few clicks on the Internet.
Political and economic instability of markets
Let's start with the political instabilities, let's take for example the election of Donald Trump in the United States and its international impact has had a not insignificant effect on the price of the bitcoin, since it has jumped 90%. We can quote France closer to us with the presidential elections which generated a lot of uncertainties, including the hypothesis of an election of Marine Le Pen as president of the republic. These political situations have important repercussions on the price of crypto-currencies, especially on Bitcoin.
And then the economic instabilities of some countries also have a strong impact on price increases. The most striking case is that of China alone which generates on average 65% of the volume of trade on Bitcoin. Indeed, locally the yuan has lost 5% against the dollar in the last twelve months and the state is also introducing new control measures on wealth management that encourage Chinese investors to find other alternatives for Make their funds grow while passing under the radars of the regulator. This desire to control the government also has regular effects on Bitcoin's course, especially when, for example, the Chinese state decides to set a threshold for the amount that can be converted into another currency with the idea To limit as far as possible the leakage of capital abroad.
Japan and Russia legalized Bitcoin, soon Australia
Japan has legalized the Bitcoin since 1 April, and it is not a fish as a means of payment and has introduced the fact that trading platforms will have to put in place the systems existing in banks around Fighting fraud and identifying customers with a KYC process (Know Your Customer). It turns out that since that date, 46% of the exchanges of bitcoins have been made from Japan, that is to say that it is a great success and that this gives a little more legitimacy to this crypto- change. Soon after, on 10 April, Russia announced that it would do the same in 2018, so the government and the Russian central bank are working together to regulate and legislate around digital currencies. Mexico, for its part, is also considering the possibility of setting up a regulatory framework around the purchase and sale of bitcoins.
Finally, as of July 1, Australia will do what Japan has done, ie set a fiscal and regulatory framework around Bitcoin and recognize it as a currency for the purchase and sale of goods, It will also encourage exchange platforms to return locally because its previous policy had made them flee.
