Bitcoin price exceeds $ 18,000, highest level since 2017

Bitcoin surpassed $ 18,000 on Tuesday night, reaching its highest value since December 2017. Indeed, before this week, bitcoin was only worth over $ 18,000 for a brief four-day period at the height of the boom. bitcoin 2017: December 16 to December 19.

After peaking at around $ 19,500 in December 2017, the currency’s value fell to $ 6,000 in February 2018 and then to $ 3,200 in December. Since then, its value has risen in spurts, topping $ 18,000 late Tuesday.

Bitcoin’s value declined slightly during Wednesday morning’s trading. As of this writing, a bitcoin is worth around $ 17,800.

The rise in the price of Bitcoin has been driven by growing interest from a number of large investment firms and financial service providers. An investment company called MicroStrategy has poured $ 425 million into Bitcoin in recent months. Square announced a $ 50 million bitcoin investment last month.

PayPal announced support for bitcoin in October and opened the service to the general public last week. Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego recently revealed that he has 10% of his liquid portfolio invested in cryptocurrency.

And of course, each announcement creates a buzz around bitcoin and leads other investors to take cryptocurrency differently. The more people invest, the more the price increases, and the higher price generates more media coverage. This cycle has led to several previous bitcoin booms, and it appears to be leading to a new one.

But there is no guarantee that the latest boom will be sustainable. For example, in the spring of 2019, bitcoin seemed to be in full recovery, going from $ 3,200 at the end of 2018 to $ 14,000 in June 2019. But then that rally failed and bitcoin fell back to $ 4,000.

The price of bitcoin could therefore exceed $ 20,000 in the coming months. But it could just as easily crash, inflicting great casualties on those who jumped near the top. Investors should beware.