Bitcoin surges closer to a magical $10,000 level!

Bitcoin is careering towards $10,000 after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend boosted buying from retail investors, combining with heavy activity in Japan and South Korea to put a rocket under the price.

The cryptocurrency has traded as high as $9,783 in the past 24 hours, having risen nearly 8% in that time, and is currently at $9,686 on the CoinDesk bitcoin price index. Over the past week the cryptocurrency has jumped 17%.

Over the two days either side of Thanksgiving and on the day itself, US exchange Coinbase amassed 100,000 new account openings, suggesting bitcoin was a popular talking point at the dinner table. Coinbase has this year tripled its number of accounts to a total of 13 million.

Bitcoin was trading at $1,000 in January 2017 and just two weeks ago (12 November) registered a near-term low of $5,600, which in hindsight turns out to have been a highly profitable entry point, given that bitcoin has risen 45% in the past two weeks.

As we have pointed out regularly in our price reports, each dip in the bitcoin price is followed by new highs, and from China bans to failed software upgrades, there appear to be no events capable, as yet, of disrupting the bullish trend.

The announcement that the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the largest derivatives market in the world, will start trading bitcoin futures in the second week of December has underpinned the current turbo-charged buying, which for many financial commentators has all the hallmarks of a speculative bubble frenzy.

However, if bitcoin maintains the current rate of advance it could be trading at $100,000 this time next year. If the bull run accelerates with more retail and institutional buyers entering the market, pushing bitcoin up even faster than it has risen this year, who knows what a reasonable price target for the end of 2018 might be.

Super-bull Max Keiser and long-time critic of current financial sector incumbents, predicted back in October that bitcoin would hit $10,000 by the end of the year, and Mike Novogratz, a hedge fund manager, currently setting up a cryptocurrency fund to invest in the asset class, predicted last week that bitcoin would reach $10,000 by year's end. There are currently around 120 crypto hedge funds.

Fundstrat analyst Tom Lee increased his price target to $11,500 by mid-2018, which, from today's vantage, could prove to be a touch conservative. And, not to be left out, in early November we called $10,000 here on Interactive Investor.

Iqbal Gandham, UK managing director at investment platform eToro, told Interactive Investor: "The Bitcoin price is being driven by increasing confidence that the cryptocurrency will, in time, become a commonly used exchange of value."

He continued: "So this really is just the beginning. Everyone from central banks, hedge funds, governments, big incumbent financial institutions and retailers are looking at use cases for cryptocurrencies."

But others take a diametrically opposed view. Neil Wilson, senior analyst at ETX Capital thinks it's a bubble. "With no intrinsic value to bitcoin, it's hard to see this as anything other than a giant speculative bubble."

Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, famously described bitcoin as a "fraud".

A recent survey by LendEdu indicated that, on average, US bitcoin investors would not consider selling until the price reached $196,000. The same survey found that 39% of investors planned to hold for one to three years and 67% had not sold any of their bitcoins since investing, which taken together suggests market participants are holding out for stratospherically high long-term gains, bearing in mind that six months in cryptoland is best viewed as two years in 'normal' financial markets.

And it's not all about bitcoin. Of the top 100 altcoins, 80% are up on Monday with only 19 decliners, according to industry website Coinmarketcap.com. Of the top-tier coins only Dash and Ethereum Classic have lost a bit of shine, while 14th place coin Cardano (ticker: ADA) is up 50% to $0.049.

The combined market capitalisation of the cryptocurrency universe is now $303 billion, surpassing the market cap of, for example, payments giant Visa (V) and in the same ball park as the market cap of all the publicly listed companies in Mexico.

According to Cryptocompare.com, global trading volume in bitcoin is dominated by yen buyers (64%) followed by the US dollar at 19%, Korean Won on 10%, with euro buyers bringing up the rear at 3.2%.

In the sterling market, London-based Coinfloor continues to be the dominant exchange with a 43% slice of the pie, followed by Coinbase on 26%.

Investors persuaded of the merits of bitcoin or are not totally convinced but are nevertheless looking for an entry point, may be encouraged by Gandham's view : "This trend isn't going to slow down any time soon. Investors should diversify to shelter from the inevitable price volatility as Bitcoin grows in popularity."

But those who remain unconvinced that bitcoin or another cryptocurrency is the future of money, for now look on in disbelief but expect to have the last laugh.

....let's all be optimistic! Idon't see a fall anytime soon..

source:
http://www.iii.co.uk/articles/463459/bitcoin-surges-closer-magic-10000-level