Bitcoin price: is the cryptocurrency heading for a bull run?
J.P. Morgan’s new virtual coin appears to be reigniting investors’ faith in the market
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Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images
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Bitcoin is on course to breaking a six-month stretch of continual
losses, as analysts predict a cryptocurrency bull run on the horizon.
Since July, bitcoin prices have tumbled from a peak value of $8,160
(£6,310) to $3,480 (£2,690) at the end of January 2019, according to
ranking site CoinMarketCap.
The
digital coin has been gaining momentum over the past few weeks,
however, with prices sitting at around $3,920 (£3,030) as of Tuesday
morning.
If values remain at or above their
current levels until the end of February, bitcoin will score its first
positive month since values began plummeting last summer.
Mati Greenspan, senior online market analyst at trading platform eToro, told The Independent that bitcoin’s recent gains “may well suggest that the long-awaited bull market is not far away”.
But
“until bitcoin sees a strong breakout above the psychological level of
$5,000 (£3,860), the longest bear market in cryptocurrency’s short
history continues”, he added.
What’s behind the sudden gains?
Most analysts believe bitcoin’s climbing values are the result of banking giant J.P. Morgan’s decision to launch its own cryptocurrency.
The
firm’s “JPM Coin” is based on blockchain technology, the same
architecture used by the likes of bitcoin, and will be used to
facilitate “near-instantaneous” settlements of money transfers, the Financial Times reports.
Although
the newly announced cryptocurrency will be used only for internal
online payments at the bank, and is not available for public trading,
the move indicates that the wider financial sector is ready to adopt the
controversial tech.
“At the end of the day, the fact
is that JPM using the digital coin for cross-border payment only
strengthens the entire space” and “fosters the very concept that these
digital coins are the future”, says Forbes.
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