Why is the Bitcoin price going up SO FAST? Could bitcoin crash?
THE latest bitcoin price boom is being driven by Wall Street’s “growing embrace” of the cryptocurrency, according to a leading economic historian.
Bitcoin rose more than 15 percent on Monday alone, surging past $17,000 to hit a new record high, after almost tripling in value over the past month. The price surge came after the bitcoin futures launch late on Sunday gave investors exposure to the bitcoin market via a large, regulated exchange for the first time.Dr Garrick Hileman, economic historian at the University of Cambridge, said: “The key recent driver has been Wall St’s growing embrace of bitcoin. “CME, CBOE, and NASDAQ all announced the launch of futures markets for bitcoin, and many see this as further legitimization of bitcoin as a new asset class.
"We have also seen the global user base dramatically grow from approximately 5 million in April of this year to between 20-30 million now.” He said that between 80 and 90 per cent of new users are investors, meaning only a small fraction of new bitcoin adoption is for its use as a currency. Chicago-based derivatives exchange CBOE launched the futures late on Sunday, while the CME Group is due to launch its futures contract this weekend.
"Bitcoin appears to have more in common with Amazon.com’s sharp run-up and correction in 1998-2000, and then run-up again in recent years.” Bitcoin has been compared by some to the 17th Century Dutch tulip craze, which the first example of an economic bubble in European history. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has famously warned that bitcoin will “blow up”, adding: "It's worse than tulip bulbs. It won't end well.” Bitcoin was set up in 2008. Somebody who invested $1,000 in bitcoin at the start of 2013 would now be sitting on around $1.2 million.
Source- express.co.uk