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Bitcoin price on Thursday put an end to a week-long bear run. The cryptocurrency almost hit $6000 on most exchanges once again after a 7% uptick in the last 24 hours. This just goes to show that the launch of Bitcoin Gold (BTG) has not met the expectations of traders.
Unlike Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold does not have any community or institutional support, which is why traders are showing confidence in Bitcoin. After debuting near $500, the Bitcoin gold price has plunged to $131, even amid buy pressure from margin traders who needed to purchase it to pay back lenders. This situation is likely to worsen when the network officially launches and traders are able to begin making deposits on exchanges.
According to analysts, subsequent Bitcoin forks will have diminishing returns and that the forked coins may cannibalize one another. While it is still early to say, but it appears that Bitcoin Cash will stay the most successful Bitcoin’s fork.
Bitcoin price broke out at $5,485 mark and reversed its trajectory leading it to trade at $5950 at the time of writing, posting a market cap of $98 billion. Many altcoins achieved slight price bumps as well, enabling the total cryptocurrency market cap to rise above the $170 billion mark.
Despite the disruption caused by Bitcoin Gold and the forecast uncertainty from SegWit2x, Bitcoin is still in an optimal position to lead another rally. Strictly regulated Bitcoin options, futures, and derivatives exchanges like LedgerX have started to record substantially high trading volumes.
Notably, billionaire investor Mike Novogratz, recently revealed that a “herd of institutional investors” are entering the cryptocurrency market. As soon as the $6000 level is broken once again, expect another massive rally that will take Bitcoin price to fresh all-time highs.
Top Stories from the Crypto World
1. Peter Thiel praises Bitcoin
Peter Thiel, a billionaire investor, and PayPal co-founder believes that critics of Bitcoin are underestimating the cryptocurrency.
Thiel said that while he is skeptical of most cryptocurrencies, he believes Bitcoin, in particular, has a promising future depending on the trajectory it takes.
“… it’s like a reserve form of money, it’s like gold, and it’s just a store of value. You don’t need to use it to make payments.” Thiel added. “If bitcoin ends up being the cyber equivalent of gold it has a great potential left.”
A good thing to know: Back in 2014 during a Reddit AMA Thiel argued that Bitcoin doesn’t work well for payments. At that time he said that he will become more bullish on Bitcoin when he sees the payment volume of Bitcoin really increase.
2. Need to separate Bitcoin from Blockchain, says China Renaissance CEO
This is not the first time we’ve seen a banker calling Blockchain a game changer and trying to separate it from Bitcoin.
Fan Bao, CEO of investment bank China Renaissance, has said Bitcoin is not as attractive as the distributed ledger technology that underpins it. Bao also added that he believes Bitcoin is starting to get a little Bubblish.
“I think Blockchain is a very exciting technology, probably the most disruptive technology in our industry, the financial services industry,” he added.
3. India is going high on Bitcoin
Indian Bitcoin exchanges are seeing exponential growth in terms of user acquisition. Zebpay, the largest Bitcoin exchange in the country, is already adding 200,000 users a month and is eyeing half a million by the end of 2017.
India will play a huge role in the cryptocurrency revolution because of the country’s unique youth demographic: 65% of India’s total population (1.25 billion) is 35 or under, and half the country’s population is 25 or under.
Even though the central bank of India has asked people to be wary of Bitcoin and its usage, Indian exchanges are witnessing a steady rise in the number of users every day.