Bitcoin established its new all-time high for the third time this week, at $2,700, closing in on the $3,000 region. Bitcoin price increased by around 15 percent in the past 24 hours, surging from $2,327 to $2,700.
Although analysts attributed last week’s Bitcoin price surge to the economic and political uncertainty of the US, which operates the largest Bitcoin exchange market with a 34.2 percent market share and $450 mln daily trading volume, this week’s strong rally and momentum of Bitcoin price is likely the result of a general increase in global adoption, progress in Bitcoin scaling and extensive coverage of Bitcoin from mainstream media.
The demand toward Bitcoin is rising exponentially in major markets outside of the US, including China, South Korea and Japan. China, in particular, has made a strong comeback over the past few weeks, replacing the South Korean, Japanese and European exchange markets to become the second largest Bitcoin exchange market in the world.
Cointelegraph also reported that mainstream media outlets including CNBC described Bitcoin as one of two assets which investors should hold to hedge against market instability and economic uncertainty. As Boris Schlossberg of BK Asset Management stated:
“Even after bitcoin's 92 percent rally so far this year, it's holding at very steady highs right now, and typically when you have a big move — whether it be any kind of instrument — generally you're going to have some continuation. It's clearly signaling more demand. So I like that as a hedge play going forward.”
177 percent year-to-date growth
Holger Zschäpitz, the senior editor of the financial desk and market maniac at Welt, revealed on May 25 that Bitcoin has recorded a 177 percent growth year-to-date, with Bitcoin price entering the $2,500 region.
#Bitcoin explodes to new Record-High at >$2,500, and is now up a stunning 177% for the year. pic.twitter.com/Kd1OYbeTnl
— Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) May 25, 2017
More importantly, the increase in the demand toward Bitcoin is evidently portrayed by Google Trends for the search term “Buy Bitcoin.” According to Google’s data platform, the search term “Buy Bitcoin” broke 70 points for the first time since 2013, prior to the Mt. Gox fiasco, when Bitcoin price reached $1,300 and demand toward Bitcoin skyrocketed.
An important aspect to consider about Bitcoin’s recent rally is that its momentum is supported by the emergence of institutional investors such as Fidelity Investments. On May 23, Fidelity Investments CEO Abigail Johnson revealed that the firm, which oversees 2.13 trillion worth of assets, has been mining Bitcoin, accepting the digital currency for payments at its local cafeteria and plans to integrate Coinbase on its main platform by the third quarter of 2017.
“I love this stuff – bitcoin, ethereum, blockchain technology – and what the future holds. I am still a believer – and it's no accident that I'm one of the few standing before you today from a large financial services firm that hasn't given up on digital currencies,” said Johnson.