It only took Bitcoin five days to spend $ 6,000 to $ 8,000.

Last Wednesday, we reported that the number of bitcoins had reached $ 6,000 for the first time this year. On Monday, just five days later, bitcoin reached a new high of $ 8,000 in 2019. By the time I write this, a bitcoin is worth about $ 7,900.

Of course, bitcoin has reached much higher levels by the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018. Bitcoin's current price, just under $ 8,000, is less than half the US $ 19,500 record. December 2017. The last Bitcoin was worth at least 8,000 USD in July 2018.

As it often happens, the rise of Bitcoin fits into a wider boom of cryptocurrencies. On Saturday, the price of ether – the currency of the Ethereum network – has exceeded 200 USD for the first time in 2019. The other crypto-currencies, including Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Monero and Dash, have reached or nearly the highest of 2019.

Nevertheless, Bitcoin has surpassed all these alternative crypto-currencies in recent weeks. The price of Bitcoin has doubled since the end of March.

I wrote last week that there was no clear explanation for the sudden popularity of Bitcoin from investors. This continues largely to be true today.

Bakkt, a digital asset exchange that shares a parent company with the New York Stock Exchange, recently issued a bullish article. Bakkt announced Monday that it would begin user acceptance testing for bitcoin futures in July.

This is a step towards greater acceptance of the currency by the general public and could generate additional demand for bitcoins. But it's hard to believe that this factor contributed significantly to last week's significant price gains.

There are also signs of increased purchases of bitcoins by large institutional investors. This can contribute to the rise in Bitcoin prices, but we do not see why these buyers are suddenly interested in Bitcoin.

While the price of bitcoin has risen at a rapid pace in recent days, it has not yet reached the peak fever of late 2017. In the 48 hours leading up to the peak of December 2017, bitcoin has passed from $ 12,000 to $ 15,000 in less than 48 hours. . A few days later, bitcoin reached its record price of $ 19,500, then collapsed, marking the beginning of a year of slump that had brought the price below $ 4,000 in December 2018.