decrypt.co
The price of Bitcoin has shot up today to reach the $17,000 mark—a figure not seen since January 2018. It's up 4% today.
Bitcoin's price has continued to surge over the last few months, rising up from $10,000 in early September to its current value—an increase of 70%.
The cryptocurrency has now spent 112 days in a row above the $10,000 mark—its longest stretch in history—having reached the 100 days mark on November 5.
Bitcoin's volume has stayed steady over the last few days, between $23 billion and $32 billion. This has been consistent over the last few months, despite the increasing price.
Why is Bitcoin's price going up?
Decrypt has highlighted many reasons why Bitcoin's price has continued to press for new recent highs.
One important factor is the way that many companies have started investing directly into Bitcoin, including MicroStrategy and Square. This has been boosted by key investors turning bullish for Bitcoin in recent months, such as Wall Street legend Paul Tudor Jones and billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller. Firms like Grayscale have been accomodating the surge in interest from institutional investors, and has needed to pick up an awful amount of Bitcoin to accomodate them.
Another key factor is the impact of the Bitcoin halving in May. At the time, venture capitalist Tim Draper said, “The halving is happening and historically the price doesn’t come up until six months later when people realize they’re short on Bitcoin and they need to buy more.”
The rest of the crypto market is also in the green today, with many coins up even greater amounts. The price of XRP is up 10%, with a current value of $0.30. Similarly, Litecoin is up 9%, to $74. Polkadot and Cardano are both showing strong performances of 9%.
The only coin in the top 15 in the red is privacy coin Monero, which is down 1% to $117.