Bitcoin hodlers, break out the champagne. The good times are here again.
Bitcoin, the number one cryptocurrency by market cap, today rose in price by more than $1,000 within hours. At the moment, it is trading just over $8,600 per coin, according to Messari.
To say it’s been a rough month for Bitcoin would be an understatement.
Things took a bad turn in late September when Bakkt—the institutional trading platform owned by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE)—got off to a rocky start. While things eventually picked up according to Forbes, Bitcoin dropped more than $1,000 from its price in a matter of minutes upon Bakkt’s launch.
But the trouble didn’t end there.
Just before Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was scheduled to be skewered before a congressional committee over Facebook’s Libra project, the market took a dive. The price of Bitcoin dropped by roughly $800 within minutes, trading in the mid-$7,000 range—the lowest it had been since early June of this year.
But now things seem to be looking up. Bitcoin has spiked by nearly 16 percent amid news that China is putting blockchain at the forefront of its technology goals. In yesterday’s discussion with the Politburo Committee, Chinese president Xi Jinping commented that blockchain could improve Chinese infrastructure, and he’s looking to potentially push blockchain businesses within China’s borders.
The country has had a relatively mixed relationship with cryptocurrency itself, banning both ICOs and foreign exchanges in 2017 and 2018, respectively. But President Jinping, it seems, has long been a blockchain fan, referring to it as a “breakthrough” technology last year, according to CNBC.
Bitcoin’s sudden surge has rubbed off on other cryptocurrencies as well. Ethereum shot up to $178 per token and Bitcoin Cash is trading for just shy of $240.