Bitcoin Swings For The Fences

Bitcoin prices continue to climb, notching fresh highs as the broader cryptocurrency space keeps gaining momentum.

The world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization reached as much as $3,646.87 today, according to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (BPI), helping the digital asset set an all-new high.

This price represented a roughly 275% year-to-date increase.

"It's an incredible bull trend," said Petar Zivkovski, COO of leveraged cryptocurrency platform Whaleclub.

[Ed note: Investing in cryptocoins or tokens is highly speculative and the market is largely unregulated. Anyone considering it should be prepared to lose their entire investment.]

Market Optimism

Going forward, some market experts are quite optimistic about Bitcoin's prospects.

Iqbal Gandham, UK Managing Director at eToro, a multi-asset broker and social trading company, offered a bullish perspective:

"[Bitcoin's] ecosystem is getting stronger," he said. "You now have more places to spend Bitcoin, more evening meetups discussing how to work with Bitcoin and other [cryptocurrency] assets."

As a result, conversations are not just limited to speculating on the price, they involve use cases as well, stated Gandham.

Further, he observed a change in the content surrounding the world's largest cryptocurrency:

"I am having more conversations about the price of a Satoshi than that of Bitcoin," he said. "I feel that is the real tipping point."

Bubble Concerns

In spite of all this optimism, several market observers have voiced concerns that the value of cryptocurrencies may have grown inflated. If these digital assets have entered a bubble, an inevitable crash could trigger sharp losses.

As for whether any such crash will take place, the jury is out, said Zivkovski.

"Whether this is a bubble remains to be seen. The hype is strong but surprisingly not as strong as it was during the 2013 bubble, which suggests there may still be space and time for upward movement."

source;https://www.forbes.com/sites/cbovaird/2017/08/11/bitcoin-swings-for-the-fences/2/#23d9bb485a2e