Bitcoin price, which has been in the doldrums this year, jumped in the last week on the back of a series of positive pronouncements. The original cryptocurrency, which had been mired in a range below $3,500 since the middle of January, broke past that barrier and is currently flirting with $4,000, a figure it last touched at the beginning of December.
Ethereum, a cryptocurrency which bottomed out during the last week of January, is also on an upswing. The cryptocurrency jumped by 40% within last week. Other coins within the top 10 cryptocurrencies have also shown marked increases in their prices.
On an overall basis, the market cap for cryptocurrency markets jumped by 21% in the last week. That’s good news for a market which has been in a prolonged slump for most of last year and this one.
Is Crypto Out of the Woods Yet?
The answer to that question is a complicated one. The material fundamentals of cryptocurrency markets have not changed much in the last couple of weeks. Some posit that the bump in bitcoin’s price is the result of JPMorgan Chase’s announcement regarding its coin. But the bank has been bullish on blockchain, the technology underlying cryptocurrencies, for some time now. Besides, JPM Coin is not open for investing to the general public and does not herald widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies on Wall Street. Others are pointing to rumors of Samsung’s cryptocurrency wallet as possible reason for the jump in crypto prices.
Still others say a shortfall in Ethereum’s ether in the face of constant demand led to an increase in its price.
“This supply shortage while demand remained consistent has caused Ethereum’s price to rise dramatically and the rest of the cryptos followed. By today, we’re going on sheer momentum,” wrote Mati Greenspan, analyst at eToro.
Mike McGlone from Bloomberg Intelligence said that the indicators showed that the market was “way far away from the typical bottom you’d normally see.” Blockchain Capital cofounder Spencer Bogart held out hope that bitcoin might be in for a bull run in the future. He pointed to the “higher and higher” quality of entrepreneurial activity in its ecosystem as proof that the dip in its prices has not deterred entrepreneurs from working in its ecosystem.