Bitfinex, the greatest volume BTC/USD exchange, broke the ₦2.16 Mln ($6,000) barrier earlier today and has been joined by all the major exchanges. At press time, the price tag on Bitcoin had reached ₦2.16 Mln ($6,041) according to Coinmarketcap.com, causing its market capitalization to exceed ₦36 Trillion ($100 bln) for the first time ever.
What’s news got to do with it?
The most recent surge come a week of consolidation on the $5,000 mark, regardless of the comments of naysayers like Jamie Dimon and the president of Brazil’s central bank. Within the last month, China banned ICOs and Bitcoin exchanges, South Korea banned ICOs, the US SEC stepped up scrutiny of ICOs, and the CEO of Chase Bank has been unable to help keep his mouth shut.
None of it matters.
For a long time, Bitcoin has been called “the honey badger of money,” and “antifragile.” The “Bitcoin don’t care” meme is probably most applicable of fine now. Bitcoin simply doesn’t care what China does, or what bank CEOs say, or what central bankers think. The thing Bitcoin cares about, apparently, is increasing in price and adoption.
Can’t hold it back
Many have speculated that institutional money is making its way into Bitcoin, and they’re likely correct. LedgerX was recently approved by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission to make a regulated Bitcoin options market. This kind of market will give institutions wary of holding the particular digital currency ways to expose themselves to its price movements. LedgerX is scheduled to debut Bitcoin options trading this month.
Bloomberg reports that industry executives expect approval of a Bitcoin ETF in the future. They indicate LedgerX, saying that with a controlled derivatives market having been approved by the CFTC, it’s merely a matter of time prior to the SEC gets aboard and allows an ETF to be created. Earlier this season, SEC had themselves stated that in case a controlled options market is developed, they could reconsider their position on Bitcoin ETFs.
The approval of an ETF, or exchange traded fund, sometimes appears to function as the ultimate goal of institutional Bitcoin adoption. This kind of fund will be required to truly possess enough Bitcoin to be fully “backed,” and will be possible for institutional and retail investors to use.
What fork?
Possibly the most surprising part of Bitcoin’s latest price moves may be the rapidly approaching SegWit2x hard fork. Though 85% of miners remain signalling their intention to proceed through with the fork, recent defections (such as F2Pool) and statements from exchanges like Bitfinex and Coinbase might have convinced investors that the hard fork won’t actually happen.
When asked about SegWit2x, industry CEO Bharath Rao commented that the debate appears to be between miners and businesses on a single side, and users and developers on the other. He suggested that whatever chain the miners and businesses ultimately support will probably become successful, though it’s hard to predict people’s actions and their ramifications.
Still, Rao believes that forks can be perceived as the best thing, because each time a winner emerges from this type of fork, the market will assume the controversy is ended and will boost the price tag on the victor.
If Bitcoin’s scaling crisis is finally resolved this November, through the victory of either chain or in the form of a last second fizzling of the hard fork threat, the marketplace will probably continue to do something favorably.
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