Following comments from DoubleLine's Jeff Gundlach tying the surge in virtual currencies to the demise of China (right before that nation's credit rating was downgraded for the first time in 30 years), Bitcoin surged overnight, breaking above $2400 for the first time. It is now up over 150% year-to-date.
Bitcoin is up for the 26th day in the last 29 sessions, doubling in price in that period...
Wednesday's gain comes after a bitcoin scaling agreement was reached by the Digital Currency Group, representing 56 companies in 21 countries, at the Consensus 2017 conference in New York, which reduced some of the fears (Bitcoin being split in two cryptocurrencies creating market confusion) surrounding the so-called 'hard fork' in Bitcoin's code. The agreement states:
"We agree to immediately support the following parallel upgrades to the bitcoin protocol, which will be deployed simultaneously and based on the original Segwit2Mb proposal:
- "Activate Segregated Witness at an 80% threshold, signaling at bit 4
- "Activate a 2 MB hard fork within six months"
The announcement is the latest bit of good news for the cryptocurrency.
At the beginning of April, Japan announced bitcoin had become a legal payment method in the country.
Additionally, Ulmart, Russia's largest online retailer, said it would begin accepting bitcoin even though Russia had said it wouldn't explore the cryptocurrency until 2018.
The gains also seem to be boosted by speculation the US Securities and Exchange Commission could overturn its ruling on the Winklevoss twins' bitcoin exchange-traded fund.
Bitcoin has gained 154% this year. Except for 2014, it has been the top-performing currency every year since 2010.
While Bitcoin reaches new highs, Steem is also doing well. The cryptocurrency's value has surged by about 10% over the last 24 hours.
With this recent surge, Steem, which now valued at around $1.40, reached a new high in 2017.
