Bitcoin trading has seen another bullish run, leading the king of crypto to fresh new highs and allowing the primary face of the cryptocurrency movement to break through the 10 000 US Dollar barrier. It has been almost 15 months since this last happened, a fateful 15 months that many thoughts were the end of cryptocurrency as we know it.
2018 an important year for crypto despite negative trading sentiment
When Bitcoin crashed from an all-time high of around 19 thousand dollars to just 6 thousand dollars, people thought the market was completely finished. There was a small rally by the bulls that pushed the price up to 10 thousand in March of 2018, but the price quickly fell until it hit a low of close to 3200 in December of last year.
The new year has been kind to cryptocurrency in general, with many of the leading coins appreciating massively in value. This was in no small part due to the bullish sentiment surrounding Bitcoin and cryptocurrency as a whole – and those foundations were laid while the overall health of the industry did not look too rosy (at least to outsiders).
What 2018 did for cryptocurrency was to allow it to continue developing without being in the news for its price alone. It allowed people to learn more about cryptocurrencies, and we are now at a point where major corporations and financial institutions are looking to offer either Bitcoin or some form of cryptocurrency in their very own portfolios.
The entrance of large institutional investors has helped keep the rise in Bitcoin steady and marching forward. However, this latest push to break the 10 thousand barrier has been attributed to another reason entirely.
Libra the catalyst for Bitcoin’s breakthrough
While many in the industry think that Bitcoin would have broken through the ten thousand dollar barrier sooner rather than later, this particular push to 10k has come on the heels of Facebook’s Libra announcement. The giant social network released the whitepaper for its very own cryptocurrency and saw mixed reactions. However diverse, almost every single news outlet had something to say about Facebook’s venture.
This has increased the reach of cryptocurrency in mainstream news outlets and has probably drawn more people into the ecosystem than ever before. Chris Keshian, a former hedge fund manager and crypto enthusiast, says that,
“Facebook’s Libra has legitimized crypto for many investors, causing increased focus on the asset class of late.”
It seems that people are loading up on crypto – all cryptocurrencies, not just Bitcoin – in anticipation of Libra genuinely opening up the market to more mainstream audiences. Facebook has such power that it could quite literally move everyone from “knowing about that digital Bitcoin money thing” to becoming intimately knowledgable of cryptocurrency within just a few years.
One just has to look at how older people are using Facebook with ease when they could barely open e-mail earlier. Older adults are casually using their mobile phones when before they had problems with setting up their TVs, a problem some still have.
All in all… Libra has been good to Bitcoin – and this price surge might only be the very beginning.
At the press time, BTC is still in the green by 0.16% in the last 24 hours and trades at $10751.
Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.
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