Bitcoin (BTC) passed above $19,000 on Tuesday, after rallying $7,000 in one month. The leading cryptocurrency is now within sight of its all-time high of $19,783 reached on Dec. 17, 2017.
- The price of bitcoin was $19,001 at press time, representing a 2% gain in the past 24 hours, according to the CoinDesk 20 index.
- This took place after bitcoin's price broke the $17,000 and then $18,000 levels within the same week.
- On Friday, Rick Rieder, chief investment officer at BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, said on CNBC bitcoin could take the place of gold to a large extent because crypto is "so much more functional than passing a bar of gold around."
- The market capitalization of bitcoin also hit its all-time high this week at about $329 billion, according to data provided by crypto analytic firm CryptoQuant.
- Guy Hirsch, managing director for US at eToro, said 2020's bull market "debunks" the idea that bitcoin is a "tulip bubble" because "tulips never had a second wave of buying the same way bitcoin has."
- With retail on-ramp platforms including PayPal and CashApp being more prevalent in 2020 than 2017, bitcoin's price could break $20,000 "in the not-too-distant" future, Hirsch added, predicting retail investors will kick in the market and propel the price.
- All but two of the other coins from the CoinDesk 20, including ether and XRP, have also been in green in the past 24 hours.
- With more institutional investors entering the bitcoin market as well as miners not liquidating their positions, "it appears likely that price will continue to rise," according to a recent newsletter from CryptoQuant.
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