Bitcoin’s second coming: crypto’s high smashes 2017 record (with $20,000 in sights)

The latest rally has been buoyed by the general move toward risk among global investors, further fuelled by growing mainstream acceptance (Paypal now accepts it on its platform), celebrity and investor endorsements, its perceived inflation-proof status and stimulus from central banks driving interest rates to record lows. US-based asset manager Fidelity Investments launched a Bitcoin fund earlier this year. 

For Bitcoin and its fans, today marks a momentous occasion in a decade-long life cycle marked by rapid rises and even steeper descents. The December 2017 record was followed by a vertiginous 70% crash from which it has only now recovered. 

 That said, Bitcoin remains highly volatile and has posted an average daily move of 2.7% this year, against swings of 0.9% for the price of gold - with which it has now been compared as a store of wealth.

Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak + Co., says it could reach as high as $22,000 before topping out. He said: “It is very unlikely that it will be anywhere near as big as the 2018 decline.”

Glen Goodman, author of The Crypto Trader, said: “All the talk of ‘Tulip Mania’ in the 2017 boom is absent now. Once the historic Dutch tulip bubble burst it never recovered, while Bitcoin has now shown it has real staying power."