Bitcoin has come to life this week after months of stagnation, jumping over 20% in just the last 10 days.
The bitcoin price had been trading on the side since its supply squeeze in early May but this week jumped past the $ 10,000 psychological level, soaring to over $ 11,000 per bitcoin.
Bitcoin price surge has triggered retail trading boom with exchanges worldwide reporting sky-high bitcoin trading volume and one of cryptocurrency hedge fund chief executives says fear of missing out, sometimes called FOMO, is attracting “people who late to the party. “
Bitcoin trading volumes have soared this week as the bitcoin price soars higher.
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“In cryptocurrency we often see ‘momentum’ plays,” Joe DiPasquale, CEO of San Francisco-based crypto hedge fund BitBull Capital, said by email.
“Bitcoin is currently in a break-out period, just as it was in the first six months of 2019, when it increased in value by 189%,” DiPasquale added, pointing to a growing interest in bitcoin from Wall Street and among payment companies .
DiPasquale expects the bitcoin price to hit $ 15,000 before the end of the year, which would put bitcoin within touching distance of its all-time high of $ 20,000.
Bitcoin climbed to around $ 20,000 in late 2017 before crashing back to around $ 3,000 a year later, with its massive rally led by a retail investor fueled by an explosion of media interest in bitcoin and its underlying blockchain technology.
Bitcoin’s sharp jump higher this week led to a rush of traffic to bitcoin exchanges as eager investors tried to catch the rise, calling back memories of the 2017 bitcoin gold rush.
Coinbase, the largest bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange in the US with 35 million users worldwide, has seen a threefold increase in bitcoin trading volume this week, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Meanwhile, BinanceUS, the 10-month-old American arm of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, reported that bitcoin trading this week reached an all-time high on its platform.
Elsewhere, smaller bitcoin companies have also seen a surge of interest.
“[This week] blow away anything we’ve seen, “said Cory Klippsten, technology investor and founder of Swan Bitcoin’s bitcoin buying app, via Telegram, adding the four-month-old startup” always made about a third of our revenue in five day. “
The price of bitcoin erupted months of malice this week to surge about 20%, climbing to over $ 11,000 … [+]
Coinbase
However, Klippsten doesn’t believe we’re back in the FOMO phase yet – though he admits: “Expectations of so many of them [bitcoin investors] that we are in the early stages of another meteoric rise can be self-fulfilling. “
Like many bitcoin price watchers, Klippsten sees a bitcoin supply cut in May, when the volume of new bitcoin entered the market was halved, along with the US Federal Reserve’s massive stimulus measures due to locks triggered by coronavirus as bullish for the bitcoin price and caused a “price hike for all hard assets” – including gold, which came within striking distance of hitting $ 2,000 for the first time this week.
Klippsten is echoed by analyst Thomas Kuhn, of Quantum Economics.
“We are seeing volatility creeping back into the bitcoin market and there is a question that will attract the attention of Robinhood momentum traders but it is too early to say whether we have seen or will see FOMO again,” said Kuhn via Telegram, pointing to the recent interest in stocks and shares from causal day traders who have been using low-cost trading apps like Robinhood to pile into equity markets.
In addition, bitcoin’s purchase service from Montreal, Shakepay, this week reported a “significant” surge in demand.
“Over the past few months, and especially in recent weeks, we’ve seen a significant surge in registrations and customer activity on our platform,” Shakepay chief executive Jean Amiouny said by email.
“As the Bank of Canada continues to print money, bitcoin purchases and sales on Shakepay have been growing exponentially, and as of this month we’ve cut over $ 400 million in digital currencies bought and sold.”