By 
It has been a crazy week for Bitcoin. Just last week, the cryptocurrency crashed to $5,500 due to SegWit2x supporters switching to Bitcoin Cash – but since Sunday Bitcoin has risen to almost 45% – bringing the prices to an all-time high of $8,040 on Friday.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $7,732 posting a market cap of $129 billion with 55.6% dominance over the entire cryptocurrency market.
On Friday, many cryptocurrency exchanges had to suspend withdrawals and deposits for a short period of time because a small group of miners continued to signal for SegWit2x even though the fork’s most prominent advocates had called for its cancellation.
Some analysts believe Bitcoin price received a slight push due to this miners’ mistake that led fork-compatible nodes remain stuck at block 494782.
Ever since CME’s announcement to list Bitcoin futures, analysts are anticipating that it’s only a matter of days before Wall Street makes its first major entry into the cryptocurrency ecosystem, which could have fueled Bitcoin rally.
It is believed that Wall Street investors are bullish on publicly traded companies that enter Bitcoin and Blockchain space. This was evident by the fact that Square received a significant bump to its share price (surging up to 5.45%) after it rolled out a Bitcoin pilot program to a limited number of its app users.
Another factor why Bitcoin is continuing the bull run is the successful completion of the first off-chain atomic swap which was accomplished using lightning network technology. The developers were able to trade testnet Bitcoin for Testnet Litecoin without leaving a record of the transaction in either blockchain.
The success of lightning-based atomic swap is a huge achievement. This feature will allow the creation of decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges in the future and may put an end to scaling debate. But for now, with high fees and unpredictable block times, the on-chain versus off-chain scaling debate continues to rage on.
Over the past few weeks, we witnessed Bitcoin smash through the $5000, $6000 and $7000 levels. According to Goldman Sachs, the level at which Bitcoin price will consolidate is $8000. In a note to investors, Goldman Vice President Sheba Jafari wrote:
“The market has shown evidence of an impulsive rally since breaking above 6,044. Next in focus $7,941. Might consolidate there before continuing higher.”
Top Stories from the Crypto World
1. Mt Gox could launch an ICO to revive the exchange
Mark Karpeles, CEO of defunct Bitcoin exchange Mt Gox, pitched the idea of a MtGox ICO to restart the exchange, which was once one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges.
Karpeles suggests some important things that would need to happen in order for the company to revive. For starters, he says that creditors would need to ‘cooperate more,’ a comment that may not sit well with those who have had substantial losses from past mismanagement. Furthermore, he has offered the company for sale at $245 mln.
2. One of the world’s largest ATM manufacturer announces Bitcoin support
South Korea’s Hyosung, one of the largest ATM manufacturers in Asia, which also has its headquarters in Texas, has officially integrated Bitcoin into its international ATM models.
Since 2014 Hyosung has collaborated with leading Bitcoin service providers within the South Korean cryptocurrency industry such as Coinplub – backed by billionaire investor Tim Draper.
For over three years Hyosung has enabled South Korean ATM users to buy and sell Bitcoin through tens of thousands of Hyosung ATMs.
3. We are not getting involved with Bitcoin: UBS
UBS chief investment officer Mark Haefele has said that a lack of government oversight and “critical mass” around cryptocurrencies is keeping the company – Switzerland’s largest bank – out of the market.
Haefele also said that the idea the government could crack down on bitcoin, citing its possible use for terrorism financing, has also dampened any prospects of UBS getting involved.
“All it would take would be one terrorist incident in the U.S. funded by bitcoin for the U.S. regulator to much more seriously step in and take action. That’s a risk, an unquantifiable risk, bitcoin has that another currency doesn’t.” Haefele added.