Buoyed by strong buying from investors and hedge funds, Bitcoin prices have hit over $18,000, a level last seen in December 2017. On Wednesday, the cryptocurrency traded about 8.6 percent higher at $18,172, showed CoinDesk data.

Share Market Live

NSE

Bitcoin has been one of the best-performing assets this year despite volatility due to COVID-19. As per the CoinMarketCap data, bitcoin's market value now stands at $337.2 billion, higher than the $331.8 billion it hit in December 2017.

According to CNBC International, many crypto fans are arguing that things are different this time, also due to the likes of Fidelity Investments, Square and PayPal. Like, Fidelity launched a Bitcoin fund while Square invested in the coin. Meanwhile, PayPal started letting its users buy, hold and sell virtual currencies. The payments giant is set to enable shopping with crypto early next year.

Many market observers believe that the digital currency could move upwards and touch its all-time high of $20,000 given the pace of the current rally.

Micah Erstling, a trader at Hong Kong-based bitcoin and crypto market-maker GSR told Forbes, "Belief is growing that we could reach $20,000 before the end of the year. More importantly, investors believe that this rally is sustainable. Many signs point towards that."

Mirroring a similar view, Nicholas Pelecanos, head of trading at blockchain development platform NEM said to Forbes that bitcoin is currently witnessing an extremely bullish price action. "Driven by a mix of market structure and strong fundamentals, bitcoin could now be within days of reaching its all-time high," he added.

But, some of them believe that there could be a bit of correction.

Ian Balina, the chief executive of Washington-based Token Metrics said to Forbes, "While still bullish long-term due to macro-economic factors and large corporations getting into crypto, we expect bitcoin could correct back to around $14,000 by the first week of December."

He further explained that bitcoin could hit $45,000 in the next couple of years led by the development of central bank digital currencies but the current rally could see some wear-off.

(Edited by : Ajay Vaishnav)

First Published:Nov 19, 2020 4:37 PM IST