The move, though relatively puny when one zooms out of the BTC chart, represented a significant step change in the decade-old crypto’s recent fortunes as the long-running bearish sentiment showed definite signs of a shift.
Only a brave fool or a remarkable genius would suggest this is territory for a bear market to erupt, but the very idea – following more than a year of what has been largely sideways movement coupled with a generous side dish of ever-decreasing wedges – is a refreshing thought in anyone’s book.
Once the dust settled on the private joy at finally seeing some solid upward motion, the first question that would have forced the needle to scratch across the grooves of a celebratory vinyl, would have been: “Wait, why did it do that?”.
Interestingly, it was one of those occasions where there appear to be definite answers – a notion which, in its own beholding, adds a little extra air to the soufflé of optimism.
As it began an abrupt ascent on Friday afternoon, bitcoin took all of its lesser cohorts with it.
Ether, XRP, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash et al clung like eager pilot fish to a shark as BTC made a rapid dart for the surface.
Hash rate was the first thought for many.
Put simply, hash rate is the amount of power burned up across the BTC network as it processes transactions and produces new units.
On Friday afternoon, and then into the weekend, that hash rate rocketed to a level untouched since the bitcoin dramatically slumped in November.
This, in itself, is interesting.
After all, it has been widely reported recently that BTC is becoming unaffordable for miners to continue their operations.
The whole process of digging out bitcoins requires an enormous amount of electricity.
BTC is currently at the tipping point of affordability.
Venezuela also gets a mention in dispatches.
Crypto investments from the deeply-troubled south American country have risen as the economic woes of a once rich nation escalate.
However, perhaps the most notable driver of improved bitcoin values is the imminent arrival of a bitcoin Exchange-traded Fund (ETF) on the US stock markets.
If this goes ahead – almost a certainty in many quarters – it would mean serious approval from US securities watchdogs.
It all points towards a very positive future for bitcoin.
But that doesn’t mean the crazy days of massive fortune-making are upon us once more.
If anything, the gifted observers of this rather curious currency would tell you that the days of huge profits are over.
Stability, it would seem, is forging its own destiny.
Coin Rivet a website bringing news, information, analysis, opinion and insight from the fast-moving blockchain world.