Bitcoin Price Run Reaches $1,200

The bullish bitcoin price trend continues in a strong start to April as price breaches $1,200 on the Bitstamp Price Index (BPI) in the late hours of Thursday (UTC).

In a month where Japan began recognizing bitcoin, the world’s most prominent cryptocurrency, as a legal method of payment equivalent to fiat money, bitcoin has taken significant strides in a rally that began in the last week of March. The price trend shows investors’ renewed confidence in the cryptocurrency after fears of a possible ‘hard fork’, a split of bitcoin’s core software into two rival coins, grew in mid-March.

Bitcoin began April hovering under $1,070 over the weekend, flirting with $1,100.  The early trading hours of Monday pushed prices above the milestone. That bullish run stuck, with price continuing to climb above $1,050 on Tuesday. Over the space of 4 days, bitcoin had already gained 8% in value since the turn of the month.

Despite a brief drop-off on Wednesday, that positive price trend has stuck, as prices made further gains yesterday. BPI data shows price starting Thursday at $1,134 to push beyond $1,150 at 08:00 UTC. The more notable swell began at 15:00, when price spiked from under $1,170 to rally beyond the next milestone to reach a high of $1,201.4 at 22:00.

At the time of publishing, global average prices have dipped slightly toward $1,185.

The price rise has pushed the overall value of mined bitcoins back above the $19 billion market cap.

For a live BTC Price chart, click here.

All time references are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

Image from Shutterstock. Charts from Bitcoin Wisdom and CoinmarketCap.