[2018-08-14] BTC Above $4,000: Boosted by Japan and Turmoil

[iamTom123]

Bitcoin price hit an all-time high of $4,225.40 early Sunday before falling slightly back near $4,000 later in the day. Strong Japanese demand and geopolitical turmoil pushed the crypto leader to its new record.

A price of $4,09221 late in the day Sunday translated into a market capitalization of $67.542 billion, according to coinmarketcap.com. The crypto leader commanded 49.44% of total cryptomarket capitalization, with Ethereum holding 20.47%. Bitcoin gained 6.31% in the last 24-hour period.

Bitcoin has now quadrupled in 2017, jumping nearly 40 percent in August alone. Its market capitalization has gained more than $10 billion in the last week.

Read more here.

Officially, Bitcoin had broken the $4,000 wall just days ago and it was attributed to the strong demand lead by the Japanese market and the rush of investors to Bitcoin due to the continuing Word War between the USA and North Korea. I now realized that it is now Asia which is the leading source of Bitcoin news and reasons for its continuing surge. We should not also forget that it is China where a big percentage of miners are. Developments in this region would have big impact on Bitcoin in the coming months and years.

[1715050045]

1715050045

[1Referee]

We should not also forget that it is China where a big percentage of miners are. Developments in this region would have big impact on Bitcoin in the coming months and years.

China has always been a major part of the Bitcoin economy, no one can deny that. However, with how things have been developing in terms of trading, it's safe to say that China shrinked down massively after the PBOC stepping in and ruining their fake volume party. China is no longer the central point of Bitcoin's popularity in Asia. Japan and South Korea are doing a pretty decent job in pushing the overall demand for Bitcoin to record highs. Look at South Korean exchange Bithumb for example, by total volume, they are the second largest exchange in the world, while most of the people here likely haven't even heard of this exchange. It makes all other major Bitcoin exchanges (i.e Kraken, Bitfinex, Bitstamp, GDAX, etc) look like a joke.

[peter0425]

We should not also forget that it is China where a big percentage of miners are. Developments in this region would have big impact on Bitcoin in the coming months and years.

China has always been a major part of the Bitcoin economy, no one can deny that. However, with how things have been developing in terms of trading, it's safe to say that China shrinked down massively after the PBOC stepping in and ruining their fake volume party. China is no longer the central point of Bitcoin's popularity in Asia. Japan and South Korea are doing a pretty decent job in pushing the overall demand for Bitcoin to record highs. Look at South Korean exchange Bithumb for example, by total volume, they are the second largest exchange in the world, while most of the people here likely haven't even heard of this exchange. It makes all other major Bitcoin exchanges (i.e Kraken, Bitfinex, Bitstamp, GDAX, etc) look like a joke.

Agreed. Ever since PBoC has clamped down and put tighter regulations on Chinese Exchanges and Japan entering the picture. Their influence has suddenly diminished in bitcoin and now it looks like they are moving towards ETH. I also believed that now Japan is the leading country is terms of volume trading together with South Korea. I don't know about using bitcoin as hedge though in case of a global war. I think this are new set of investors that are entering the market because they think that bitcoin is a good investment, rather than hedge in WW3.

[Xavofat]

I don't think you understand that it takes billions of dollars to push the price up by that much with the current state of the market.

If it was merchant adoption in Japan, it would have to be thousands of merchants all adopting Bitcoin at exactly the same time and shitloads of Japanese consumers deciding to buy and spend coins at those locations regularly.

People like to delude themselves into thinking that price rises are down to merchant adoption because it's much more sustainable growth.  The fact is that merchant adoption does not randomly grow that much in two weeks after it could have happened for months before that.  It just doesn't happen.  Whether or not you'd like to admit it, this growth is not realistic nor sustainable.

[Kprawn]

WWIII will kill all investments, including Bitcoin investments. People might hedge against possible losses in an panic over the

bad news, but that will only be temporary. North Korea would be crazy to bomb US citizens, because the USA nuclear arsenal

will destroy them, if they do. There will be no North Korea left, if that happens. We just hope sanity will prevail and the power

hungry war mongers will steer clear of such actions. I personally think mainstream adoption in Japan is driving the price rise

at the moment. 

[CyberKuro]

Bitcoin price hit an all-time high of $4,225.40 early Sunday before falling slightly back near $4,000 later in the day. Strong Japanese demand and geopolitical turmoil pushed the crypto leader to its new record.

A price of $4,09221 late in the day Sunday translated into a market capitalization of $67.542 billion, according to coinmarketcap.com. The crypto leader commanded 49.44% of total cryptomarket capitalization, with Ethereum holding 20.47%. Bitcoin gained 6.31% in the last 24-hour period.

Bitcoin has now quadrupled in 2017, jumping nearly 40 percent in August alone. Its market capitalization has gained more than $10 billion in the last week.

Read more here.

Officially, Bitcoin had broken the $4,000 wall just days ago and it was attributed to the strong demand lead by the Japanese market and the rush of investors to Bitcoin due to the continuing Word War between the USA and North Korea. I now realized that it is now Asia which is the leading source of Bitcoin news and reasons for its continuing surge. We should not also forget that it is China where a big percentage of miners are. Developments in this region would have big impact on Bitcoin in the coming months and years.

I am not sure about bitcoin All Time High, because bitcoin price are different in every exchanges, maybe major (most famous) global exchnages such as Gdax, Bitfinex, Bitstamp or Coindesk has slightly different within $50 but look at OKCoin https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/okcoin-intl/. Bitcoin ATH on this exchange over $4500 and always ahead compare to other exchanges which has bigger volume trading.
Current bitcoin price on Coindesk around $4300 and exchanges in Japan and South Korean more than $4300 as well.

[CryptoBry]

We should not also forget that it is China where a big percentage of miners are. Developments in this region would have big impact on Bitcoin in the coming months and years.

China has always been a major part of the Bitcoin economy, no one can deny that. However, with how things have been developing in terms of trading, it's safe to say that China shrinked down massively after the PBOC stepping in and ruining their fake volume party. China is no longer the central point of Bitcoin's popularity in Asia. Japan and South Korea are doing a pretty decent job in pushing the overall demand for Bitcoin to record highs. Look at South Korean exchange Bithumb for example, by total volume, they are the second largest exchange in the world, while most of the people here likely haven't even heard of this exchange. It makes all other major Bitcoin exchanges (i.e Kraken, Bitfinex, Bitstamp, GDAX, etc) look like a joke.

I agree with this and this is actually a very good development. It seems to me that the Chinese government failed to fully appreciate the many opportunities presented by Bitcoin. Well, anyway, this is nice because we all know that many people are wary of the possible control or influence that Chinese may have on Bitcoin. It is time to level the playing field especially in Asia where the Bitcoin fever and excitement is hitting like a hot cake.

[cr1776]

We should not also forget that it is China where a big percentage of miners are. Developments in this region would have big impact on Bitcoin in the coming months and years.

China has always been a major part of the Bitcoin economy, no one can deny that. However, with how things have been developing in terms of trading, it's safe to say that China shrinked down massively after the PBOC stepping in and ruining their fake volume party. China is no longer the central point of Bitcoin's popularity in Asia. Japan and South Korea are doing a pretty decent job in pushing the overall demand for Bitcoin to record highs. Look at South Korean exchange Bithumb for example, by total volume, they are the second largest exchange in the world, while most of the people here likely haven't even heard of this exchange. It makes all other major Bitcoin exchanges (i.e Kraken, Bitfinex, Bitstamp, GDAX, etc) look like a joke.

You are right.  

I just can't help but think back that ever since China banned bitcoin a few dozen times, it has been a big part of bitcoin.  It used to be a big part because people used it as FUD, but now, as you say, there is much more diversity in the number of countries in Asia that are aware of bitcoin.  :-)  

One hopes that the usability of bitcoin and wider adoption will continue.  In my view, the script versioning that segwit enables (along with a few other improvements) will be another game changer since it allows developers to replace some of the op-codes disabled in 2010 which will then increase the functionality of the scripting language without the need for a hard fork.