Just overnight Bitcoin market averages saw a final surge slightly in excess of 5% to a record a new high above US$6,000 on the back of the increased trading volumes seen Friday 20 October.
With an expected 'slight correction; after a week of steady gains the cryptocurrency pulled back slightly after trading in the US.
the averaged Twenty-four hour trading volume in in USD was measured at nearly US$2 Billion, in stark contrast to the low hundreds of thousands for other digital currencies like Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash the last bitcoin fork offshoot.
The last 24 hours seems indicative of the interest in the latest Bitcoin split scheduled for November called SegWit2x. There has been a massive inflow of capital into bitcoin, significantly outweighing the amount of new money flowing into other cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin investors seem to be betting on the first bitcoin holding its very own after a split scheduled for November called SegWit2x. Futures contracts for the bitcoin offshoot were trading lower and that major bitcoin developers, or perhaps the BTC mining pools were dropping the support of theirs for the split.
From recent history, bitcoin shot to record highs after an August split into bitcoin and bitcoin cash. Investors at the time typically of a split also receive equal amounts of the new digital currency, and some traders see buying bitcoin ahead of a split as a means to increase potential gains. The latest split, bitcoin gold, is also scheduled to take place in the next several weeks.
At Friday's peak price, bitcoin had climbed nearly 40% for October and was up 520% for the year, according to CoinDesk data.
Brian Kelly, a CNBC contributor and head of BKCM, which runs a digital assets fund for clients, attributed much of Friday's gains to expectations that bitcoin will rise further after topping the psychologically key US$6,000 level.
A large proportion (just under 50%) of 23,000+ respondents who responded to an CNBC online survey this week said they expect bitcoin to rise above US$10,000. Former Fortress hedge fund manager Michael Novogratz said last week he sees bitcoin heading to $10,000 in the next 6 to ten months.
Bitcoin notched the record of its 2 days after briefly plunging 8.7% amid fears of greater scrutiny from U.S. regulators.
The majority of the cryptocurrency's trading volume came from Japan, with fifty nine % of the trades executed in Japanese yen. Trades in U.S. dollars accounted for 25.5% of all trades, according to CryptoCompare.
Nevertheless, the cryptocurrency has had a stellar performance over the past month, rising 50.4 %, despite being criticized by JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock CEOs Jamie Dimon and Larry Fink.
Dimon said last week at a convention that folks that own the cryptocurrency are actually "stupid." Fink, who spoke at the same conference, called bitcoin an "index of money laundering."
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