Bitcoin price: Cryptocurrency enters 'BULLISH RALLY' as expert predicts value could TRIPLE

Bitcoin climbed over the $7,600 mark during on Sunday after early unsuccessful attempt to build up momentum past $6,000, according to cryptocurrency industry website CoinDesk. The clamber had BTC devotee Michael Novogratz claim bitcoin has “popped back up out of the rubble” and that its value could triple back to the $20,000 within the next 18 months. The cryptocurrency in May traded over $6,000 for the first time since November 2018 last Friday before reaching this year’s record at $7,600 – a nine percent increase since the beginning of the year. 

Bitcoin had investors captivated in 2017 after an unexpected rise in popularity which had the digital currency rally at over $20,000 before the value dwindled overnight.

Mr Novogratz suggested the slump marked the bottom of the cryptocurrency and that bitcoin could continue to build up further confidence. But he also warned of the risks of a “catastrophic hack” of crypto exchanges: “It would take something like that to shatter this newfound confidence.”

The chief executive officer of Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, revealed last week hackers had stolen more than $40million worth of BTC.

Zhao Changpeng said the funds were withdrawn by hackers using a variety of techniques “including phishing, viruses and other attacks”.

READ MORE: Bitcoin fraud: Warning over new cryptocurrency scam as two arrested

Bloomberg correspondent Yuji Nakamura suggested the recent changes in bitcoin’s trading value could signal the cryptocurrency had entered a “bull phase.”

Mr Nakamura said: “Bitcoin is 100 percent driven by speculation, by sentiment. There are no fundamentals involved. Anyone who tells you otherwise is kind of lying, or delusional.

“Because it’s all about sentiment, right now we’re in a bull phase. The bull phase generally tends to last, they don’t change that quickly so right now we’re in a bull phase.

“We’ve had a lot of bad news come out over the past two weeks – we had the Binance hack, a very critical exchange being hacked for $40 million, Bitcoin just brushed it off. Right now we’re in a bullish rally.”

Cryptocurrency expert Mati Greenspan said: “The market has been building up to this ever since the mid-December lows.

“The price of Bitcoin has almost doubled since January 1st making it the best performing liquid asset on the planet.”

British investors lose an estimated £1.2billion to fraud and online scams are a growing threat.

Last month the NPCC National Cyber Crime Programme announced that every police force in England and Wales has a dedicated Cyber Crime Unit in place.

Chief Constable Peter Goodman said: “I am absolutely delighted to announce this significant step forward in improving the overall response to cybercrime in England and Wales.”

A form of digital cash, cryptocurrency uses encryption to secure transactions and control the creation of new units.

It uses cryptography, a form of secret coding originating from the Second World War, to process transactions securely.

Its major appeal is it is independence from established financial systems but has proven very volatile for investors.

Bitcoin was trading for $7,411.47 at the time of writing. 

source: express.co.uk