Bitcoin Surges Past $5,300 to an All-Time High

Fri Oct 13 2017
Jim Andrews (525 articles)
Bitcoin Surges Past $5,300 to an All-Time High

What bitcoin bubble? On Thursday, the popular crypto-currency defied skeptics’ predictions and soared to a new all-time, past the $ 5,000 mark in the early morning and then climbing nearly another $ 400 higher through the day.

As of late afternoon ET, bitcoin sat around $ 5,320, which amounts to a one week gain of about 25% and a roughly 170% increase from its summer slump when the currency briefly fell below $ 2,000. Bitcoin began the year near $ 1000 and has been on a tear ever since.

Here is what the latest price run-up looks like in numbers. Here’s a chart from the trade publication Coindesk showing the price in the last week:

 

 

 

Meanwhile, here’s a 24-hour view compiled by the Winkelvoss twins, whose index is slightly more conservative because it doesn’t include data from more volatile foreign exchanges:

 

 

As is typically the case with bitcoin, it’s hard to point to a single explanation for the latest price spike, but likely factors include a surging interest from Japanese investors and signs that proclaimed crackdowns in Russia and China will not be as severe as feared.

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Other factors that may be spurring on bitcoin are a move by the large U.S. exchange Coinbase to let ordinary investors engage in day trading, and bullish notes from big banks like Goldman Sachs and even JP Morgan, a longtime bitcoin bull.

Today’s run-up also lifted the value of other digital currencies, including Ethereum and Litecoin.

Even as bitcoin grows more mainstream, there are no signs it has shed its famous volatility. For a longer-term view of recent bubbles and busts, see Fortune’s recent history of bitcoin crashes. Would-be investors may wish to consult our primer on $ 5,000 bitcoin, while skeptics can check out our guide to shorting it.

This is part of Fortune’s new initiative, The Ledger, a trusted news source at the intersection of tech and finance. For more on The Ledger, click here.

 

Jim Andrews

Jim Andrews

Jim Andrews is Desk Correspondent for Global Stock, Currencies, Commodities & Bonds Market . He has been reporting about Global Markets for last 5+ years. He is based in New York