Bitcoin Hits 30-Day High, Chases All-Time High in $2,900 Territory
Bitcoin’s price reached a 30-day high on Friday at $2,838 with a market capitalization of close to $46.718 billion. The price reached $2,900 on some exchanges. The Friday high was the closest the price has gotten to the $2,964.74 it reached on June 12.
The price fell back to $2,700 late in the day, and was down by 1.66 percentage points for the 24-hour period.
Hard Fork Concern Fades
Concern about the hard fork on August 1 continues to subside, as more than 90% of the last 144 blocks have signaled in favor of the SegWit proposal by July 21.
Consensus has emerged for BIP 91, a precursor to SegWit, which is designed to prevent a chain split from occurring should miners disagree about whether to activate SegWit2x or BIP148, a user-activated soft fork. BIP 91 does not rely on set dates to activate its rules, but counts on having a certain amount of hash power. Once 80% of blocks signal for a significant period, then blocks that are not from pools that support SegWit start to be rejected.
The price boost indicates the scaling debate appears to be reaching a conclusion, with the expectation of the network reaching a higher capacity.
Other Factors Help Bitcoin
The latest rally also indicates institutional interest is returning, although some would argue it never left. While the currency’s volatility remains a reality, the uptrend reflects a growing belief that the early stages of a decentralized global payment system have begun.
Bitcoin’s jump could also be linked to monetary policies in Europe, judging by the close timing. The European Central Bank president, Mario Draghi said Thursday the ECB is leaving quantitative easing and interest rates unchanged for now. The euro immediately jumped 0.5% against the U.S. dollar.
At the same time, one of bitcoin’s strongest value drivers is the fact that it isn’t correlated with other assets, meaning its prices have nothing to do with how other assets perform.
Also read: $2,600: Bitcoin price chases its June high, hard fork notwithstanding
Bitcoin Lifts The Crypto Sphere
Bitcoin’s rebound triggered a sharp rally across the crypto sphere as the total value of all cryptocurrencies surged past the $90 billion threshold. This represents a nearly 50% increase since July 16, when the total crypto market cap fell to $61 billion.
Bitcoin holds close to half of the total cryptocurrency market at 47.37%, followed by Ethereum, with 22.36%.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
