After falling to their lowest level in more than two months this weekend, bitcoin prices breached $1,000 again today.
Overall, the digital currency rose as much as 7.5% during the session, climbing from a low of $958.77 to as much as $1,030.78, according to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (BPI). At the time of the report, bitcoin was trading at $1,023.95.
For bitcoin, the turnaround followed its decline to as little as $891.51 on 25th March, its lowest average price since 25th January, BPI figures show.
Notably, the figure was nearly 50% below the all-time high of more than $1,300 that the cryptocurrency reached earlier this month, then fueled by anticipation for the SEC’s ruling on a proposed bitcoin ETF.
When explaining bitcoin’s recent price moves, most analysts pointed to the the cryptocurrency’s ongoing technical in-fighting as reason for the volatility.
Should the bitcoin network undergo a hard fork, it could potentially split into two separate blockchains (each with their own distinct tokens), prompting concerns among less tech-savvy investors.
Such an event could prove highly bearish for the price of both bitcoin tokens, analysts have warned. Investor and Civic CEO Vinny Lingham, in particular, has emphasized the sharp declines bitcoin could suffer following a hard fork.
Concerns about the growing popularity of Bitcoin Unlimited, an alternative software implementation and developer group that could push the move helped bring about the plunge, according to Petar Zivkovski, COO for leveraged digital currency trading platform Whaleclub.
He told CoinDesk:
“As Bitcoin Unlimited dominated social media conversation and the odds of a hard fork rose, BTC/USD price plummeted.”
Harry Yeh, managing partner of investment manager Binary Financial, took a different approach by looking at market dynamics.
He reasons that smart money simply took advantage of this market sentiment, as traders either caught the bounce and sold or shorted the currency pair.
Still, the markets continue to be sharply volatile amid such moves, developments that could continue to stoke fears among casual bitcoin holders and users.
Such choppy waters, those surveyed suggested, could become the norm should bitcoin’s scaling uncertainty continue.
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