Bitcoin value breaks records at US $6,400

On October 20th, the price of Bitcoin hit an all-time high of US $6,000, breaking its previous record of $5,800 in the same month. China’s cryptocurrency crackdown and US Securities and Exchange Commission’s declaration of digital tokens as 'securities’, has not slowed down the rate at which Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are appreciating in value, as the Bitcoin price has just reached its new record-breaking high of $6,400 only one week later.

Bitcoin started trading below $1,000 in the beginning of 2017 and, according to the data from the CoinDesk Price Index, has appreciated by about 500% this year. On Oct. 29, the price of Bitcoin rose to $6,306.58. Markets have been consistently trading above this level since then. Data shows that the price of Bitcoin hit an average of $6,415.28 at roughly 14:00 UTC yesterday, for the very first time across global exchanges. This climb also represents a gain of more than $200 in 24-hour trading.

According to the experts, the demand of Bitcoin may be driven by the expectation of getting a 1:1 Segwit2x payout. According to Crypto Compare’s Charles Hayter, miners now consider forks as a good thing. They think of them as an opportunity to have stakes in both chains with independent policies and tenets.

Hayter states:

“The result is demand buying Bitcoin and price moves prior to the fork as participants clamor to claim their free money with illiquid futures markets acting as proxy for value. The value depends on the community assessment of the veracity of the plan which often are marketing drives combined with overtures based around one key point.”

This is similar to when the Bitcoin trade volume and its value increased in August during the Bitcoin Cash hard fork. Hayter emphasized, “The lure of free Bitcoin gold is thought to have contributed to the recent rise to $6,200.” The price remained stable after the fork and then continued to increase. The outcome of upcoming fork might be entirely different, but traders are predicting the price to cross $7,000 or higher.

So far, 2017 has become Bitcoin’s year of consecutive all-time highs. Japan also brings a lot of Bitcoin Demand as yen is dominating markets by 62%. The recent climb has brought Bitcoin's market capitalization to roughly $106 billion.

Other high-rated Cryptocurrencies, however, have had mixed results in terms of trading regarding their market capitalization. There has been a significant decline in Bitcoin cash and its price continues to decrease further.