Bitcoin Price Hits 2015 Highs Led by Chinese Exchanges
On Monday afternoon, the price of bitcoin experienced one of its fastest spikes of the year when it rose from $340 up to over $360 on many exchanges before settling back down to around $355 as investors took profits. Over the past 24 hours, the price has risen over 10%, on average, across many of the exchanges.
As is typical with a speculative investment such as bitcoin, when the price starts rising, others that have watched on the sidelines begin to experience a phenomenon known as the fear of missing out or FOMO. As the price continues to rise, more people get on board, which further exacerbates the speed in which the price increases.
The jump over $360 sets a new all-time high for bitcoin in 2015 and is also a nearly 50% increase in price growth in one month.
As has been the case since September, China is leading the charge, with the price trading anywhere from $10-$15 above the rates on U.S. and European exchanges.
China is experiencing unprecedented amounts of growth. On October 30th, Jack C. Liu, the Head of International at OKCoin, said, in a tweet, that it had been the “busiest day of the year @OKCoinBTC as #Bitcoin trades to 2015 high of $344. No clawbacks on futures, no downtime. Great day for us & industry.”
Two days later, he went on to reveal that OkCoin had seen incredible demand for accounts on the exchange:
Incredible new user growth for @OKCoinBTC USD and CNY. Two dozen plus handling KYC and customer service. We can onboard within 24-48 hours.
— Jack C. Liu (@liujackc) November 2, 2015
While he didn’t provide any concrete numbers, he did comment last week on what was driving the adoption.
“Some Chinese traders are expressing a view on the CNY exchange rate after the last devaluation and you have interest by mainland speculators to move to other assets after the stock market fallout,” he explained in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine.
Jacob Donnelly is a full-time product manager and freelance journalist covering stocks, business and bitcoin. He runs a weekly digital currency and blockchain newsletter called Crypto Brief.
Photo Stefan / Flickr (CC)
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