The price of bitcoin has levelled off following wild market swings over the last few days, though experts predict more volatility for the cryptocurrency.

It is currently trading at around $9,300 (7,200), having dropped below $7,500 last week amid questions over Facebooks Libra cryptocurrency project and reports that quantum computers could pose a threat to bitcoin. This dip was shortly followed bya major price surge that saw bitcoin briefly reach above $10,000 over the weekend.

Despite the price turmoil over the last week bitcoin has managed to avoid the so-called Death Cross a market pattern that takes place when the 50-day moving average falls below the 200-day moving average.

From 15p 0.18 $0.18 USD 0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.

Prominent cryptocurrency analyst Nigel Green, who is the chief executive of thedeVereGroup financial advisory firm, believes bitcoin will experience more gainsand hit $12,000 before the end of the year so long as itis able to stay above the key support level of $8,500 this week.

Bitcoin has registered some impressive gains over the last 48 hours after being in a lull period in recent weeks, Mr Green toldThe Independent. The $8,500 support has previously acted as a crucial support for bitcoin. I believe that if bitcoin traders can keep the price above this over the next week, the worlds dominant cryptocurrency will experience a breakout.

On 3 January, 2009, the genesis block of bitcoin appeared. It came less than a year after the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto detailed the cryptocurrency in a paper titled 'Bitcoin: A peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System'

Reuters

On 22 May, 2010, the first ever real-world bitcoin transaction took place. Lazlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins the equivalent of $90 million at today's prices

Lazlo Hanyecz

Bitcoin soon gained notoriety for its use on the dark web. The Silk Road marketplace, established in 2011, was the first of hundreds of sites to offer illegal drugs and services in exchange for bitcoin

On 29 October, 2013, the first ever bitcoin ATM was installed in a coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada. The machine allowed people to exchange bitcoins for cash

REUTERS/Dimitris Michalakis

The world's biggest bitcoin exchange, MtGox, filed for bankruptcy in February 2014 after losing almost 750,000 of its customers bitcoins. At the time, this was around 7 per cent of all bitcoins and the market inevitably crashed

Getty Images

In 2015, Australian police raided the home of Craig Wright after the entrepreneur claimed he was Satoshi Nakamoto. He later rescinded the claim

Getty Images

On 1 August, 2017, an unresolvable dispute within the bitcoin community saw the network split. The fork of bitcoin's underlying blockchain technology spawned a new cryptocurrency: Bitcoin cash

REUTERS

Towards the end of 2017, the price of bitcoin surged to almost $20,000. This represented a 1,300 per cent increase from its price at the start of the year

Reuters

On 3 January, 2009, the genesis block of bitcoin appeared. It came less than a year after the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto detailed the cryptocurrency in a paper titled 'Bitcoin: A peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System'

Reuters

On 22 May, 2010, the first ever real-world bitcoin transaction took place. Lazlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins the equivalent of $90 million at today's prices

Lazlo Hanyecz

Bitcoin soon gained notoriety for its use on the dark web. The Silk Road marketplace, established in 2011, was the first of hundreds of sites to offer illegal drugs and services in exchange for bitcoin

On 29 October, 2013, the first ever bitcoin ATM was installed in a coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada. The machine allowed people to exchange bitcoins for cash

REUTERS/Dimitris Michalakis

The world's biggest bitcoin exchange, MtGox, filed for bankruptcy in February 2014 after losing almost 750,000 of its customers bitcoins. At the time, this was around 7 per cent of all bitcoins and the market inevitably crashed

Getty Images

In 2015, Australian police raided the home of Craig Wright after the entrepreneur claimed he was Satoshi Nakamoto. He later rescinded the claim

Getty Images

On 1 August, 2017, an unresolvable dispute within the bitcoin community saw the network split. The fork of bitcoin's underlying blockchain technology spawned a new cryptocurrency: Bitcoin cash

REUTERS

Towards the end of 2017, the price of bitcoin surged to almost $20,000. This represented a 1,300 per cent increase from its price at the start of the year

Reuters

Other market analysts claim that geopolitical issues such as Brexit and the escalating trade war between the US and China could see investors turn to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies due to uncertainty in traditional markets.

The recent gains could also serve to prompt even more investment, as traders seek to make a quick profit from bitcoins sudden good fortune.

After the quick push higher there will be profit taking today but the overall change in sentiment is very positive, said Marcus Swanepoel, CEO of cryptocurrency firm Luno, who added that there did not appear to be one answer as to why bitcoin experienced such huge gains.

Some attributed bitcoins latest price rise to comments reportedly made by Chinese leader President XiJinping. Speaking at the Political Bureau of the Central Committee last week, President Xi described bitcoins underlying blockchain technology as an important breakthrough and said more should be done to encourage its development.

He added that China should seize the opportunity offered by blockchain technology and accelerate its development.

His comments add weight to rumours that China is developing its own cryptocurrency, which is expected to be revealed early next year. A recent report published by digital exchange Binance suggests that its launch could have a significant impact on the traditional financial sector by eliminating the need for bank accounts.

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Bitcoin price prediction: China-induced surge will continue if cryptocurrency defies dreaded 'Death Cross' - The Independent

The price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies tanked today, continuing a months-long slide that has seen the value of the digital currency slide by more than $2,000 from highs of above $10,000 earlier in the year.

Investors are still speculating about the cause of the crash, but hopeful cryptocurrency bulls before today had hoped that $8,000 would be the new floor for Bitcoin.

No longer. Today the price of Bitcoin dropped to $7,448.75, down from around $8,000 earlier in the day.

Investors arent sure whats behind the crash, but Bitcoins commentariat pointed to two likely culprits.

One was the underwhelming performance of Facebooks chief executive Mark Zuckerberg in testimony before Congress on the Libra cryptocurrency that his company is leading the charge to create.

However, an underwhelming performance from Zuckerberg and the potential fate of Libra, which cryptocurrency purists have scoffed at anyway, may be less concerning for the Bitcoin crowd than developments happening in Googles quantum computing research labs around the world.

Earlier today, Google declared quantum dominance, indicating that it had solved a problem using quantum computing that a supercomputer would have taken years to solve. Thats great news for theoretical physicists and quantum computing aficionados, but less good for investors whove put their faith (and billions of dollars) into a system of record whose value depends on its inability to be cracked by computing power.

When news of Googles achievement first began trickling out in late September (thanks to reporting by the Financial Times), Bitcoin experts dismissed the notion that it would cause problems for the cryptocurrency.

We still dont even know if its possible to scale quantum computers; quite possible that adding qbits will have an exponential cost, wrote early Bitcoin developer Peter Todd, on Twitter.

The comments, flagged by CoinTelegraph, seem to indicate that the economic cost of cracking Bitcoins cryptography is far beyond the means of even Alphabets multibillion-dollar budgets.

Still, it has been a dark few months for cryptocurrencies after steadily surging throughout the year. The real test, of course, of the viability of Bitcoin and the other cryptographically secured transaction mechanisms floating around the tech world these days is whether anyone will build viable products on their open architectures.

Aside from a few flash-in-the-pan fads, the jury is very much still out on what the verdict will be.

That uncertainty affects more than just Bitcoin, and, indeed, the rest of the market also tumbled, as Coindesk pricing charts indicate.

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Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies had a very bad day - TechCrunch

At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is trading at around $291.

Last week, the popular altcoin was showing signs that it would drop further following huge losses at the end of September. However, BCH rebounded spectacularly over the weekend in response to Bitcoins positive momentum.

Overall, BCH has gained over 20% since last week and over 10% in just the past 24 hours.

Will BCH continue to push higher? And if so, what are the next levels to look out for?

Lets take a look at the chart for Bitcoin Cash.

As you can see from the chart above, the price of BCH recovered during early September before crashing around 45% in the second half of the month.

The gains of mid-September were lost and the price came crawling back down to below $230 in October as the huge market-wide meltdown hit the coin hard. At its lowest point over the past month, BCH touched $200 before recovering almost immediately.

BCH has since spiked from around $200 to $300 in the space of a few days, representing a 33% jump.

Last week, I claimed it was probable that BCH would start seeing some positive momentum as the price was recording higher lows. The market responded in kind, with Bitcoins sudden 40% increase spilling over into the majority of prominent altcoins like Bitcoin Cash.

This positive momentum took Bitcoin Cash above two of its three EMAs. At the moment, BCH is attempting to push past its 200-day EMA as well, which is the last line of bearish defense (if the volume profile to the left of the chart is to be believed).

The next two resistance levels to watch out for are $300 and again near $400.

If the market starts swinging more strongly to the upside over the next couple of weeks, some altcoins like BCH have a high chance of making gains since the coin has already lost close to 60% since July, when it was trading at above $500.

For the time being, I expect BCH to attempt to break the $300 level and find support above its 200-day EMA.

If fresh investment comes into the market over the following days, theres a decent chance Bitcoin Cash will continue making higher lows while it accumulates to the upside.

Right now, volume sits at just above $4 billion around 235% higher than last week.

Safe trades!

I recently spoke with Bitcoin Cashs strongest advocate, Roger Ver, and discussed the most recent developments on the horizon for BCH. You can find all the details here, but the most juicy news seems to be the recent spike in adoption due to the implementation of smart contracts.

Roger, like myself, believes key components for mass adoption are speed and flexibility. What Bitcoin Cash Oracles offers is a way for any user to easily deploy an escrow transaction that can be used to trade globally without the hassle of trusting the other party.

I personally think these trade escrows will be key in terms of adoption, especially for work-related tasks. In a way, they do enable milestone-based funding, which may be the new and better way of conducting ICOs instead of simply creating an extra layer of complexity with STOs that require KYC and accreditation something that goes against what we should be promoting within the crypto ecosystem.

Current live BCH pricing information and interactive charts are available on our site 24 hours a day. The ticker bar at the bottom of every page on our site has the latest BCH price. Pricing is also available in a range of different currency equivalents:

US Dollar BCHtoUSD

British Pound Sterling BCHtoGBP

Japanese Yen BCHtoJPY

Euro BCHtoEUR

Australian Dollar BCHtoAUD

Russian Rouble BCHtoRUB

Bitcoin BCHtoBTC

Bitcoin Cash was born out of the idea of making Bitcoin more practical for small, day-to-day payments. In May 2017, Bitcoin payments took about four days unless a fee was paid, which was proportionately too large for small transactions. A change to the code was implemented and Bitcoin Cash was born on 1st August 2017.

Story continues

If you want to find out more information about Bitcoin Cash or cryptocurrencies in general, then use the search box at the top of this page. Heres an article to get you started:

As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not.

You may be interested in our range of cryptocurrency guides along with the latest cryptocurrency news.

The post Latest Bitcoin Cash price and analysis (BCH to USD) appeared first on Coin Rivet.

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Latest Bitcoin Cash price and analysis (BCH to USD) - Yahoo Finance

Amid Bitcoins best few days in months, infamous security expert Edward Snowden took to Twitter with a reference to an anonymous Bitcoin price prediction that would see the market reach $16,000 by Octobers end. This led to rampant excitement and speculation that perhaps Snowden himself had been behind the original prognosis.

On Saturday, Bitcoins value rose all the way to $10,500, reigniting excitement in a price prediction that most had pretty much written off as being impossible in the current market. Specifically, this prediction came from the notorious image-board 4chan and, while the first two divined prices did prove accurate, the next one predicting $16,000 in October is beginning to look highly unlikely.

However, as Bitcoin was showing serious momentum yesterday, Edward Snowden cryptically posted to Twitter the same image that was attached to the original prediction.

This immediately caused many to respond with enthusiasm and support. Snowden seemed to be alluding to the idea that maybe this price forecast still had some life in it.

To be clear, Snowden said literally nothing, so all speculation came from those responding. Some even went so far as to imply that just maybe the notorious whistle-blower was behind the original prophecy, seeing as it was anonymous.

Despite all the fun, the truth is that even with yesterdays pump, Bitcoin reaching $16,000 before November is an extremely tall order. It would give the currency only three days to almost double in value.

AsBeInCryptohas already noted, a rise like this may not be technically impossible, but such an increase in this small amount of time has only occurred at the peak of a parabolic bull run, which we are clearly not at right now. Considering that after touching on $10,500, Bitcoin has slid back to around $9,700, this scenario now seems quite far away.

Most certainly Snowden was just having a bit of fun, as it is more than likely that he monitors the value of Bitcoin and is aware of the prediction. Nonetheless, if this premonition should play out in less than three days, Twitter will certainly take a second look at whether Edward Snowden knew more than he was letting on all along.

Images courtesy of Twitter, TradingView.

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Is Edward Snowden the Anonymous Bitcoin Time Traveler? - BeInCrypto

The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) is eyeing the first half of 2020 to begin testing of its consumer-facing Bitcoin payment application. The company will be working with its partner Starbucks to bring the app to life.

The financial markets companys first foray into the world of digital assets was the recently launched Bakkt platform, which offers physically-settled Bitcoin futures. When ICE first announced Bakkt in August 2018, it also announced that it would be working with Starbucks and Microsoft on products aimed at promoting adoption much to the excitement of many Bitcoin proponents.

According to a report in Bloomberg, the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) is preparing to start the testing phase of a Bitcoin consumer payments application it has been working on. Helping the company with the testing of the new platform will be its partner Starbucks.

The ICE, which also owns the New York Stock Exchange, is hoping to begin testing of the application in early 2020. Mike Blandina, the chief product officer at the ICE-owned Bakkt, wrote in a blog post that the firm is committed to unlocking the value of digital assets. It aims to do this through consumer payments, first facilitated by its new application. He continued:

Our vision is to provide a consumer platform for managing a digital asset portfolio, whether they wish to store, transact, trade or transfer their assets.

Blandina added that ICE has put together of strong team with expertise in payments. It is now close to completing what the executive describes as its core payments and compliance platform and is focusing on developing a merchant portal and consumer application.

Bakkt excited many when it was first announced last year. A massive name like the ICE moving into the Bitcoin industry was widely interpreted as incredibly bullish. However, the platforms performance following its launch late last month was a great disappointment for a lot of Bitcoin proponents. Interest in the platforms physically-settled Bitcoin futures appeared far lower than most people had hoped.

The platform has had a very slow start, but interest now seems to be picking up. A total of 1,183 of the contracts, representing around $10.3 million were traded on Friday. Although this is absolutely minuscule when compared with the trading volumes reported at many crypto asset exchanges, the average volume of the 23 days preceding Fridays all-time high was less than $1.05 million. This includes well above average performances on October 23 and 24 too.

Along with the consumer-facing application, due to start testing in early 2020, Bakkt will also be launching new trading products on its regulated platform at the end of 2019. Users will be able to trade options on the futures contracts from December 9, as NewsBTC reported last week.

Related Reading: Was Boring Bakkt Launch Institutional Investors Waiting To Buy the Dip in Bitcoin?

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Coffee for Crypto? ICE to Launch Bitcoin Consumer App with Starbucks - newsBTC

Few crypto assets have outperformed bitcoin this year, but the handful that have are predominantly exchange tokens. Their success attests to that of the token sale launchpads they have hosted, which have in turn driven demand for exchange tokens. But as IEOs start to wind down, can exchanges sustain the momentum, or will BTC recapture the lead and finish 2019 on a high?

Also read: China Ranks 35 Crypto Projects as President Xi Pushes Blockchain

Bitcoin has had a good week, but despite putting a dent in every major crypto asset, thanks to Fridays paint-melting rocket ride, its still got some catching up to do. Within the top 50 cryptocurrencies by market cap, aside from chainlink, which has recorded an 816% gain for the year, the only notable tokens to have bested BTC are huobi token (247%) and binance coin (235%). Just behind BTC (148%) is another exchange token, kucoin shares (138%).

Move outside of the top 50, and lurking at 118 by market cap is this years best performing exchange token, belonging to Bitmax. BTMX is up an impressive 394% for the year, just ahead of Okexs OKB, which sits 91st by market cap with yearly gains of 358%. While theres plenty to critique about the utility of exchange tokens, and their ability to sustain their new price levels, theres no disputing that 2019 has been their year.

Anyone who was hanging around the crypto space in 2017 will recall the meteoric rise of all crypto assets, ETH especially, which peaked at $1,400 on January 13, 2018, propelled there by the ICO craze. What came next is well documented, with ETH among the hardest hit when the crypto market receded. It has taken almost two years for ETH to recover its sense of purpose which is now defi, apparently and to start recouping its heavy losses.

Q4 tends to be a quiet time of year for token sales, and given the lackluster performance of the IEOs that have launched to date, there is evidence that the publics appetite for exchange-hosted token sales is diminishing. ICOspeaks, which records forthcoming token sales, lists just two scheduled IEOs and ICOs apiece. Save for the long tail of pay-to-play IEOs listed on smaller and less salubrious exchanges like Exmarkets and Latoken, theres not much on the horizon.

Ben Zhou, CEO of Bybit exchange, told news.Bitcoin.com: Platform tokens were originally designed as a customer reward program, while being pumped up because of IEO hype over the last year. As what happened after the ICO retreat, investors will definitely revisit the intrinsic value of platform tokens the success of the platform and the willingness of the platform to reward its customers. Zhou went on to explain that there are ways to reward users without reliance on a token; in Bybits case, for instance, through issuing bonuses to users upon registration and for various campaigns. Bybits CEO claims that This has been met by widespread approval by our customers.

It would be as premature to call the demise of IEOs as it would be to predict the downfall of native exchange tokens. Crypto exchanges are one of the most profitable sectors in the industry to date, and are not about to slip away quietly into the night just because the whole IEO game has tapered off. As Binance has shown, the token launchpad is merely the first in a string of features to mandate native token usage, with subsequent products, including futures markets, also drawing heavily upon the exchange token. Kucoin is busy replicating this formula to a tee, with its Kumex derivatives platform due to launch in a few weeks.

As gatekeepers to the cryptoconomy, exchanges can effectively force usage of their native tokens, through baking in trading discounts, IEO airdrop participation, and other incentives that make it advantageous to hold exchange tokens. For the leading proponents of this business model, such as Binance and Huobi, increasing the value of the token provides another revenue stream in itself. Rather than dumping their own stash of tokens onto the market, however, it is in the interests of these giants to support the value of their native token through whatever means they can, while monetizing in other ways.

Increasing the utility of exchange tokens allows the exchanges to portray themselves as more than merely a conduit for speculating on shitcoins, but rather as vital cogs in the cryptosphere. Their token is the yardstick by which their health is signaled to the world. As a result, exchanges will stop at nothing to see the price sustained. The only thing that could conceivably put a stop to that is a rampant bitcoin. Should BTC go on another run, as it did last Friday, no crypto asset will be safe.

Do you think exchange tokens can sustain their momentum? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

Did you know you can verify any unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction with our Bitcoin Block Explorer tool? Simply complete a Bitcoin address search to view it on the blockchain. Plus, visit our Bitcoin Charts to see whats happening in the industry.

Kai's been manipulating words for a living since 2009 and bought his first bitcoin at $12. It's long gone. He's previously written whitepapers for blockchain startups and is especially interested in P2P exchanges and DNMs.

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Exchange Tokens Have Outperformed BTC This Year - Bitcoin News

The weekly trading volume of Bitcoin (BTC) against the Indian rupee has spiked substantially on Paxful. It is currently sitting at an all-time high.

Interest in Bitcoin seems to be on an uptrend in India as trading volumes spike to levels never seen before.

Peer-to-peer Bitcoin trading platform Paxful recently recorded a record for BTC/INR. This past week, 53M INR was traded against BTC on the platform. The spike is a culmination of a clear uptrend since the beginning of this year but has substantially accelerated in the past week or so.

The trading volume on Paxful is still significantly less than LocalBitcoins, however. Last week, around 83M INR was traded on LocalBitcoins compared to 53M INR on Paxful.

Still, the explosion of volume on Paxful is an indicator that something may be brewing in the background. It is a clear sign that over-the-counter trades are becoming more common in India possibly due to the governments hostility towards cryptocurrencies.

Investors might also be buying Bitcoin in anticipation of a possible resurgence of blockchain interest in the country spurred by Chinese competition. As BeInCrypto reported a few days ago, President Xi recently made blockchain a key focus of the states future plans. Since China is now considering blockchain as a core component of its future digital infrastructure, India will surely take notice.

It is quickly becoming clear that we are in the middle of a blockchain arms race of sorts and the first country to implement this digital technology will possess a major advantage. India would be smart to respond to these developments and, judging from the spike in Bitcoin volume in the country, some Indian investors paying attention.

It remains to be seen whether or not the peer-to-peer Bitcoin trading volume will continue to pick up in India.

Images courtesy of coin.dance.

Did you know you can trade sign-up to trade Bitcoin and many leading altcoins with a multiplier of up to 100x on a safe and secure exchange with the lowest fees with only an email address? Well, now you do!Click here to get started on StormGain!

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P2P Bitcoin Trading Volume in India Explodes Past All-Time High - BeInCrypto

Since June 24, the Bitcoin price has been engulfed in a downward trend. The direction of the trend ostensibly changed with the extremely rapid increase on October 25 which briefly took the price above $10,000.

This has caused numerous individuals to believe that the previous downward trend has ended and the Bitcoin price will continue going up. After all, this was one of the biggest daily increases to date and caused the price to break out from its previous trading range. Combine this with the flurry of positive news for the cryptocurrency industry and we can see why almost everyone has turned into a bull.

However, once we zoom out, the long-term outlook looks significantly gloomier. In fact, the Bitcoin price has not yet confirmed its upward trend even if that seems likely.

Crypto trader @postyXBT stated that, despite the extremely rapid increase of October 25, the weekly time-frame still gives us a bearish outlook.

The reason for this comes from the inability to sustain the increase and close the week above the previous resistance area.

Lets look at this movement closely to see if it gives us any new information on the direction of the next move.

The main resistance area is found at $9000-$9500. Initially, it ended the first wave of the upward move in May/June. After the Bitcoin price broke out, the same area acted as support until September 23. Currently, the price is trading at $9400 inside this resistance area.

Throughout July, the price never closed below $9500. The weekly close during last week was a very similar $9570. Therefore, if we discount values reached by a wick which is relatively customary in the cryptocurrency industry because of its high volatility we have not yet broken through the previous resistance level.

Continuing with a long-term view, we can use curved trend-lines in the logarithmic chart to connect every low since 2011.

The support line currently stands slightly above $6000, along with the 200-week moving average which acted as support throughout 2015.

Based on the previous price movement, it would not be unusual if the Bitcoin price experienced a decrease and consolidated near the support line before resuming its upward movement.

Disclaimer: This article is not trading advice and should not be construed as such. Always consult a trained financial professional before investing in cryptocurrencies, as the market is particularly volatile.

Images courtesy of Twitter, TradingView.

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Bitcoin Bears Are Still There When You Zoom Out, Warns Analyst - BeInCrypto

Bitcoin has had a roller-coaster week, with crypto market watchers on the edge of their seats for more wild price swings.

The bitcoin price dropped like a stone on Thursday, falling to five-month lows of just over $7,000 per bitcoin, only to bounce back to over $10,000enlivening what had been a stagnant market and leaving analysts scratching their heads as to the cause of the extreme volatility.

Ahead of bitcoin's sudden market moves this week, bullish bitcoin speculators had remained confident the market will explode over the next couple of years, with the big rebound further emboldening investorsand chasing away bitcoin bears, at least for now.

Bitcoin's wild swings this week have revitalized trader and investor hopes that bitcoin could be ... [+] back on course to top its all-time highs.

Earlier this week, widely-respected bitcoin analyst PlanB, who created the so-called stock-to-flow bitcoin pricing model, reiterated his expectation that bitcoin will hit $100,000 before Christmas 2021.

"Somewhere between and year and a year-and-a-half after the [May 2020] halving, so say before Christmas 2021, bitcoin should be, or should have been above $100,000," PlanB told Global Macro Investor founder Raoul Pal.

"If thats not the case, then all bets are off and [the model] probably breaks down. I dont expect that to happen."

The stock-to-flow pricing model calculates a ratio based on the existing supply of an asset against how much is entering circulation.

Commodities such as goldwith the largest stock-to-flow ratio of 62, meaning it would take 62 years of gold production to get the current gold stockhave a higher stock-to-flow ratio and are valued by investors for their scarcity.

Silver has the second-largest stock-to-flow ratio with 22 years for its production to reach the current silver stock.

Bitcoin currently has a stock-to-flow ratio of 25 though the model sees this increasing to 50 following the scheduled 2020 bitcoin halving.

In May next year, unless the bitcoin network computing power radically changes, the coin reward for mining new bitcoin blocks will drop from 12.5 bitcoin to 6.25 bitcoincutting the supply of new bitcoin coming onto the market by half.

Earlier this year, Morgan Creek Digital co-founder Anthony Pompliano similar predicted bitcoin will hit $100,000 by the end of 2021, pointing to looser monetary policy from the world's central banks and bitcoin's next halving as a "perfect storm"though not everyone agrees.

The bitcoin price stagged something of a recovery this week but remains far from its year-to-date ... [+] highs of almost $14,000 per bitcoin set in late June.

Following bitcoin's spike yesterday, those in the bitcoin and crypto industry were quick to jump on recent developments as an explanation for bitcoin's uptick.

"I do think Mark Zuckerbergs testimony got a lot of people worried of a bigger retaliation from regulators, but after most of the questioning had nothing to do with cryptocurrency or libra and with reports of China premier Xi describing blockchain as a 'rule of law network'spirits have risen and the bull is back," said Alex Mashinsky, chief executive of New York-based crypto lending platform Celsius Network.

China's president President Xi Jinping said on Thursday that the country should "seize the opportunity" of bitcoin's blockchain technology, taken by some that China could ease its strick bitcoin and crypto restrictions.

Ahead of Xi's comments, Facebook's chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was savaged by U.S. senators over his plans for a bitcoin rival, dubbed libra, leaving crypto investors with fresh fears there could be a global crackdown on bitcoin and other digital tokens.

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After Recovery To $10,000, Bitcoin Should Hit $100,000 In 2021 - Forbes

Bitcoin, created in the midst of the 2008 global financial crisis, is a response to the perceived instability of fractional-reserve banking.

Banks accept deposits while making loans and hold only a fraction of those deposit liabilities: a system which led to the U.S. mortgage loan-induced 2008 meltdown and caused bitcoin's creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, to embed the Times of London headline "Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks" into bitcoin's genesis block.

Now, the former Bank of England governor Mervyn King, who served from 2003 to 2013, has warned the world is "sleep walking" towards a second global financial crisissomething that could have huge repercussions for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Mervyn King served as Bank of England governor during the 2008 financial crisis and the creation of ... [+] bitcoin.

King, speaking at the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington last week, said that by "sticking to the new orthodoxy of monetary policy and pretending that we have made the banking system safe, we are sleepwalking towards that crisis," adding a similar meltdown could have devastating consequences.

"Another economic and financial crisis would be devastating to the legitimacy of a democratic market system," he said.

"No one can doubt that we are once more living through a period of political turmoil. But there has been no comparable questioning of the basic ideas underpinning economic policy. That needs to change."

King's warning oddly chimes with comments made this week by Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of social media giant Facebook, when he was grilled by U.S. senators on Capitol Hill over his company's plans to create a bitcoin-rival, dubbed libra.

"I believe that this is something that needs to get built," Zuckerberg said, defending Facebook's involvement in the controversial project.

The current Bank of England governor Mark Carney has previously called for the creation of a global digital currency that could help prevent future economic meltdowns similar to the 2008 financial crisis.

"If the share of trade invoiced in [a digital currency] were to rise, shocks in the U.S. would have less potent spillovers through exchange rates, and trade would become less synchronized across countries," Carney said in August, speaking at the annual Jackson Hole economic symposium.

Meanwhile, China is expected to soon release a state-controlled digital currency that would work in a similar way to bitcoin, perhaps using bitcoin's underlying blockchain technology.

After surging in 2017, bitcoin crashed last year. This year it staged something of a recovery ... [+] following interest in cryptocurrencies from some of the world's biggest technology companies but has failed to return to its all-time highs.

Amidst the partial recovery in the bitcoin price this year, many bitcoin and cryptocurrency investors had hoped that bitcoin's reputation as "digital gold" would mean it began acting as a so-called safe haven asset, with investors buying into bitcoin at times of political and economic uncertainty.

This appeared to happen earlier this year,until the bitcoin price moved sharply lower as gold and the Japanese yen, two traditional safe havens, climbed.

The bitcoin price remains highly volatilite and no one is able to in anyway predict what the bitcoin price will do nextleading some to think that it won't be until the next financial crisis that bitcoin will become widely used.

"Bitcoin adoption has always been driven by bank failures, bailouts, bail-ins, and political unrest," said broadcaster and bitcoin bull Max Keiser late last year.

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A Former Bank Of England Governor Warned The 2008 Crash That Inspired Bitcoin Could Happen Again - Forbes