ISLAMABAD: Bitcoin today once again surpassed $50,000 level after a gap of more than three months. The apex cryptocurrency touched an intraday high of $50,100. The market capitalisation of Bitcoin has also crossed $941 billion today till the filing of this report.
BTC traded 2.42% higher at $49,915.30 and for the week, Bitcoin traded 4.97% higher.
Since the year began, BTC has gained 70.28%. Bitcoin last traded above the $50,000 mark in May. Even as the apex cryptocurrency crosses the $50,000 hurdle, analysts are cautious as they warn of resistance coming in the way of further immediate upside.
Another reason of fresh spike in Bitcoin is that the American companies have purchased most of the Bitcoin in the market when the cryptocurrency was trading around $30-32K amid crackdown in China against its mining from April-July 2021. In other words, American companies have purchased Bitcoin at a throwaway prices and now boosting its value to double their money.
“Today is the first day we are testing $50k target area and seeing a reaction,” said options veteran John Wick. Wick touched on “supply front running fears of $50k distribution.”
Meanwhile, Ethereum also crossed $3,325 mark again today since May 2021. The market cap of Ether mounted to $390 billion this morning till the filing of this report.
Last week, analysts explored Bitcoin’s over 60% price increase since July and said the apex coin faced “a rare confluence of technical obstacles” such as a Fibonacci and Ichimoku cluster between $47,000 and $48,000.
Last week Bitcoin crossed $47000 amid its growing demand globally while its market capitalisation too edged up to around $886 billion today. In April 2021, the record high market cap of Bitcoin was at $1.1 trillion when the US authorities, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and western media started targeting Bitcoin by raising and cry over its mining in China with coal-based cheap energy that was detrimental for global climate.
From mid-May to July 2021, the value of Bitcoin continued to fluctuate around $32k to $34K because of negative developments, but from the first week of August, Bitcoin again appears back on track that is evident from its robust turnaround in couple of weeks.
On Aug 20 (Friday), the world’s largest crypto, Bitcoin has hit a 24-hour high of $47,359 and is now posting a 62.2% year-to-date return. Current prices are resting just above the $47,000 price tag with one BTC fetching roughly $47,100. The robust growth of Bitcoin value has, once again, created speculations in the market that the leading crypto would hit $100,000 by the end of 2021.
Like Bitcoin, Ethereum also crossed $3200 today and its market cap has improved to 376 billion dollars.
Crypto analysts said “What we’re seeing are market participants testing this level and reacting to the positive news in the market”.
Despite scepticism from many people, the appetite for cryptocurrencies has grown to a market valuation of $2 trillion. There is no going back, according to South African internet entrepreneur Vinny Lingham.
Lingham tells host Steve Clemons that crypto could “decimate” the traditional banking system if they were on a level playing field.
No amount of government crackdown, whether from China or the United States, can stop people from using the internet to innovate and cut out the middlemen, Lingham says. And it is inevitable that cryptocurrencies force banks to rethink their purpose, just as the internet forced newspapers to rethink their business models.
