The flagship cryptocurrency endured a calamitous 2018, which witnessed more than £7,500 wiped from its value in just 12 months. This crypto crash, known as the bitcoin bubble, lead some analysts to question whether the digital asset even had a future at all. But the bitcoin price, which had been languishing under £3,000 ($3,750) for the last few weeks, yesterday spiked in value following surges in trading volume, according to CoinDesk.com data.
Despite boasting a daily trading volume into the billions of dollars, bitcoin continues to experience with volatile price fluctuations.
These oscillations are thought to be caused by big money bitcoin players shipping large amounts of crypto at above or below the current market value.
One so-called bitcoin whale moved approximately $10million of bitcoin on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange.
READ MORE: War of words ERUPTS between cryptocurrency big hitters
This move pushed the daily bitcoin volume above $5billion, a 2019 high.
And where bitcoin goes, other cryptos follow, with while ripple added almost five percent gain and ethereum witnessing a two percent jump in 24 hours.
Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at brokerage firm eToro, said: “A surge of 6.5 percent in 30 minutes is not entirely uncommon for bitcoin and could very well be caused by a single large order on an exchange or even by a lack of liquidity in the market.
“What’s interesting about this move is that it did bring us above the $4,000 level and so far is holding onto the gains.”
READ MORE: Is the world LOSING interest in BTC?
Crypto across the board are seeing positive momentum with litecoin, NEO and Cardano leading the top 25.
The total market capitalisation of all cryptocurrencies is up £4.78billion ($6.1billion) from yesterday’s top of $132 billion and is currently sitting just above £108billion ($138billion).
In further good news for the nascent crypto industry, CoinFlex – a former subsidiary of the bitcoin exchange Coinfloor, has announced plans to offer physical bitcoin futures to Asian investors from February.
The move by CoinFlex puts it in direct competition with the New York Stock Exchange and Eris Exchange, with both immensely expected to be offering similar deals.
READ MORE: New cryptocurrency platform will TOKENISE the stock market
Physical bitcoin futures are considered crucial in solving market manipulation.
Some industry insiders believe cash-settled contracts leave unregulated bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets open to misuse.
Mark Lamb CoinFlex CEO and co-founder of CoinFloor has revealed his company will offer futures contracts for bitcoin, bitcoin cash and ethereum that can be leveraged up to 20 times.
“Crypto derivatives could become an order of magnitude larger than spot markets and the main thing that’s holding back that growth is the lack of physical delivery,” Lamb said.
“Volumes are reduced because of a problem of trust when it comes to cash-settled trades.”