Bitcoin has burst through the $11,000 ceiling to hit the highest price in 17 months – and promises to surge even higher.
Current trading sets the exchange rate for Bitcoin against the US Dollar as $11,217.51.
The last time Bitcoin experienced such heady heights was in January 2018 in the slow, downward spiral that saw the price drop from a peak of almost $20,000 in December 2017.
The slide lasted until December 2018, when Bitcoin bottomed out at $3,500 against the US Dollar.
Since then, the market has slowly moved forward in fits and starts until April, when the recovery was suddenly boosted from around $5,000 to more than double in price within a few weeks.
Rekindling hope for cryptocurrency
Some market analysts claim Facebook’s announcement that the social media group is moving into the cryptocurrency world next year with the launch of the coin Libra is behind the rekindling of hope in Bitcoin.
One cryptocurrency expert, Nigel Green, founder and CEO of expat financial firm deVere Group, feels the advent of Libra signals trouble for banks.
“The role of traditional banks will decline at a quicker rate than many predicted. Facebook’s Libra will transact across traditional payment rails. They have partnered with PayPal, Mastercard, Visa and Stripe, amongst others to fuel merchant acceptance of the digital currency.
“If you have cryptocurrency on these payment methods, the purpose of and use for traditional banks will surely shrink.
Nail in coffin for banks
“Cryptocurrencies and financial technology are already taking business away from banks. They are filling a gap left by the traditional way of doing things as the world speeds up and becomes increasingly globalised and digitalised.
“The jump into cryptocurrencies by Facebook which already has 2.7 billion users can really only be seen as another nail in the coffin for banks.”
“Tech giants entering the cryptocurrency sector indicates that digital money, as a concept, is fully mainstream and inevitably the way the world is going. Where Facebook leads, others will follow, and this will quicken the pace of mass adoption of cryptocurrencies.
“This is a major development for cryptocurrency. This is set to revolutionise how people access, manage and use money across the world and will positively disturb the wider banking sector. Banking as we have known is coming to an end.”
where were you yesterday? another planet?