The price of bitcoin reached $10,680 on the coinmarkeycap.com for the first time since March 3, 2018, representing month-to-date gains of over 13 per cent.
“Bitcoin takes aim at $100,000 target. Bitcoin is experiencing its fourth parabolic phase dating back to 2010,” said Peter Brandt a bitcoin trader on Twitter. “No other market in my 45 years of trading has gone parabolic on a log chart in this manner. Bitcoin is a market like no other.”
Investors of the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, meanwhile, kept vigil over the possibility of cashing in on a new all-time high of $10,000. The cryptocurrency was trading at $9,920 on the Coindesk.com price index as at 21:04 on Friday.
The price appreciation was predicted by some of the major investors in bitcoin including Winklevoss twins who have amassed billions from investing in the cryptocurrency.
“Come on bitcoin, I know you can do it, 50 dollars to go until blast off,” Cameron Winklevoss, one of the twins tweeted from his handle @winklevoss 20:00 on Friday. On Wednesday, his twin brother Tyler Winklevoss said if bitcoin breaks $10,000, it is likely to make a run for $15,000.
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In Nigeria, some bitcoin traders BusinessDay spoke to said they have placed orders to sell once the price hit $10,000.
The bitcoin price surge is believed to be driven by the announcement of Facebook Libra which has the backing of 27 other multinational companies. Although the official launch of Libra is expected to happen by the first half of 2020, according to Facebook, it has put world regulators on high alert on the entire cryptocurrency market.
“We will not allow cryptocurrency to become the equivalent of secret numbered accounts and we will allow for proper use, but we will not tolerate the continued use for illicit activities,” US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental organization founded in 1989 on the initiative of the G7, released standards that include a controversial requirement that virtual asset service providers (VASPs), including crypto exchanges, pass information about their customers to one another when transferring funds between firms.
Large orders to sell often forces the price of the cryptocurrency to retreat, forcing a correction.
