Price of BTC - up about 150% in the past 12 months. Reasons?

[Zadicar]

Ill choose number 4 since all those 1-3 are possible causes on which bitcoins price does increase on that percentage and we cant still be sure if this trend will continue or not in the future but seeing on the current price it does still increase gradually which really means that bitcoin is really a good investment.

[btvGainer]

The bitcoin price rose enormously in the last year. We had about 150% increase in the past 12 months.

What do you think caused that?

1. The Halving.
2. Nothing in particular. It is standard for BTC to gain value as a result of general adoption growing.
3. Future Bitcoin projects potential - mainly: Coin ETF, but at that time SegWit and LN were hyped as well.
4. Something else or combination of all factors presented above?

Do you think rising trend will continue in 2017?

Or we will hit the ceiling soon due to current bitcoin problems: unresolved scaling debate, fee war etc.

One of the reason could be the success of some Altcoin.A lot of people have investex in ICO last year like for example ICONOMI got 10k btc and all these btc are still in cold storage.Similarly there were other ICOs that got lot of btc investment like Antshares,Wings,Ark etc,this has led to short supply of btc and consequent price hike.

[Donald_Buck]

The reasons why Bitcoin is up 150% in the past 12 months?
I am also surprised: it should be 1500% and not 150% ...

[vatusasid]

The reasons why Bitcoin is up 150% in the past 12 months?
I am also surprised: it should be 1500% and not 150% ...

If the block size is larger, the price could be higher.

[Kevin77]

If the block size is larger, the price could be higher.

I am not finding this as a valid reasons. With 1MB block size itself bitcoin managed to beat gold prices, what else proof we are still needing to put an end for those block size debates. I agree block size problem is leading to long waiting for network confirmations still we cannot ignore miner's concern on competition for finding the blocks. They are into a highly competitive market and their margins are highly oscillating thus we must consider equilibrium for their profitability and our network fees levels all the times.

Back to the topic, supporting factors which are keeping demand of bitcoin in higher levels would be the key for bitcoin's current rally. The Chinese investors and media promotions are few other significant factors beyond mentioned by OP.

[talkbitcoin]

If the block size is larger, the price could be higher.

the current situation with the block size and the additional spam attack that is going on, we have lots of problems and it actually is hurting bitcoin and slowing its adoption.
but if it was solved, the adoption that is needed for the price rise is not going to magically appear out of nowhere. it still takes time.
and as far as other speculators are concerned they don't care about the blocksize much. they just want to invest and make profit. so again block size won't change things for them either.

[panju1]

I would say just 2 major reasons.
1) Bitcoin was deeply undervalued
2) The hype about the ETF approval.

We should wait another week and then decide whether Bitcoin appreciation has been substantial or not.

[Herbert2020]

I would say just 2 major reasons.
1) Bitcoin was deeply undervalued
2) The hype about the ETF approval.

We should wait another week and then decide whether Bitcoin appreciation has been substantial or not.

dude OP is talking about the past 12 months, the hype of ETF approval is a recent crap that is flying around only these days (less than a month) and the 150% increase in one month is pathetically small rise for bitcoin. check the history sometime and see how big we were rising each year. there is actually a good reply in the second comment you can refer too and also you can check bitcoinwisdon or bitcoincharts to see the history of all the past 8 years.

[Seansky]

All of the mentioned in the OP are the reasons why bitcoin has gone up in price about 150% in the past 12 months. The halving have really contributed to the price it had now. Also, future project potentials and general adoption growing was some of the reasons but for me there are addition to that. One of that is the Chinese manipulating price up then Chinese exchange freeze on China. That I think contributed a lot to keep the price to the levels we see now.

[Pierre 2]

First reason was definitely halving. It pushed price.
All other reasons were speculative. Not much happened.

[alyssa85]

The Halving. Then the withdrawl of cash in India - there was a short surge in demand for bitcoin in India at that point (November 2016). Then the speculators piled in, and they are driving the rise, and seizing on any news to push BTC higher.

At some point though, speculators will take profits, they always do.

[BillyBobZorton]

1) Bitcoin continues to be the safest and oldest coin, never been hacked or compromised
2) Bitcoin proved it can outgame governments (PBOC and other governments claiming how BTC is unsafe are now noneffective)
3) Price rises along with marketcap in a solid way
4) Cool updates coming in the future

[york780]

1) ETF
2) YUAN
3) Europe, (Greece)
4) safe heaven
5) impressing price
6) hype

[beerlover]

The Halving. Then the withdrawl of cash in India - there was a short surge in demand for bitcoin in India at that point (November 2016). Then the speculators piled in, and they are driving the rise, and seizing on any news to push BTC higher.

At some point though, speculators will take profits, they always do.

But halving happened significantly some what earlier when considering when bitcoin finds its rhythm of getting appreciated. I guess the new year boom and media coverage are the vital reasons for this rapid up surge.

[Carlsen]

I would say one big reason is the growth of bitcoin.
When you look at the altcoins, most of them have the same environment bitcoin has.
But they get pushed, just to fall again. Bitcoin did not fall.
I really think that the community has grown!
And that growth leads to a permanent demand for bitcoin, and to a high price without (much) drops.

[vatusasid]

I would say one big reason is the growth of bitcoin.
When you look at the altcoins, most of them have the same environment bitcoin has.
But they get pushed, just to fall again. Bitcoin did not fall.
I really think that the community has grown!
And that growth leads to a permanent demand for bitcoin, and to a high price without (much) drops.

the big altcoins are the ones having independent development. Examples are the Ethereum, Monero, Dash.

[puremage111]

The bitcoin price rose enormously in the last year. We had about 150% increase in the past 12 months.

What do you think caused that?

1. The Halving.
2. Nothing in particular. It is standard for BTC to gain value as a result of general adoption growing.
3. Future Bitcoin projects potential - mainly: Coin ETF, but at that time SegWit and LN were hyped as well.
4. Something else or combination of all factors presented above?

Do you think rising trend will continue in 2017?

Or we will hit the ceiling soon due to current bitcoin problems: unresolved scaling debate, fee war etc.

Halving never stop, btc getting acknowledge by more and more people daily, guess more people start to use and the price will go up i guess

[Vivace92]

The bitcoin price rose enormously in the last year. We had about 150% increase in the past 12 months.

What do you think caused that?

1. The Halving.
2. Nothing in particular. It is standard for BTC to gain value as a result of general adoption growing.
3. Future Bitcoin projects potential - mainly: Coin ETF, but at that time SegWit and LN were hyped as well.
4. Something else or combination of all factors presented above?

Do you think rising trend will continue in 2017?

Or we will hit the ceiling soon due to current bitcoin problems: unresolved scaling debate, fee war etc.

Halving never stop, btc getting acknowledge by more and more people daily, guess more people start to use and the price will go up i guess

I think everyone is starting to feel the benefits of the transaction with bitcoin, they get a lot of advantage rather than transactions with fiat money. And also the users of the bitcoin rise drastically.

[South Park]

The bitcoin price rose enormously in the last year. We had about 150% increase in the past 12 months.

What do you think caused that?

1. The Halving.
2. Nothing in particular. It is standard for BTC to gain value as a result of general adoption growing.
3. Future Bitcoin projects potential - mainly: Coin ETF, but at that time SegWit and LN were hyped as well.
4. Something else or combination of all factors presented above?

Do you think rising trend will continue in 2017?

Or we will hit the ceiling soon due to current bitcoin problems: unresolved scaling debate, fee war etc.

All of that was a factor but I think we must also consider the political instability that happened last year and this year does not seem like is doing to do better, if there is political instability then economic instability is going to follow and when that happens bitcoin gains in value.

[Iranus]

I would say just 2 major reasons.
1) Bitcoin was deeply undervalued
2) The hype about the ETF approval.

We should wait another week and then decide whether Bitcoin appreciation has been substantial or not.

dude OP is talking about the past 12 months, the hype of ETF approval is a recent crap that is flying around only these days (less than a month) and the 150% increase in one month is pathetically small rise for bitcoin. check the history sometime and see how big we were rising each year. there is actually a good reply in the second comment you can refer too and also you can check bitcoinwisdon or bitcoincharts to see the history of all the past 8 years.

We're all perfectly aware that Bitcoin rose very high and by thousands of percent in the early days.  That is normal for something that's new and still finding its place and level of attention.

Obviously Bitcoin still is, but it's completely different now to the rises before because we're actually dealing with seriously significant amounts of money now and the price can't just fly up and down in an instant, even though it is reasonably volatile.

As for reasons for the increase, I don't think that there was a significant change from the halving.  Even though the new supply decreased, that should just be a decrease in the value of the mining industry and, while that may affect the price a little bit, it shouldn't be very significant.  Generally I just think it's Bitcoin's increase in interest and its continued media attention.  Maybe even its slight rise before was part of the reason for a continued price rise because of the media attention that it received and the fact that it hasn't died after the dumps from when there was the most hype about it around 2013.