Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, today surpassed $10,000. It hit highs of $10,023 at 10.10am UTC. 

The price of Bitcoin fell after its peak; by 11am, it had fallen to $9,927. Then one last hurrah to $9,985 before settling at its current price, $9,954. 

That Bitcoin has brushed past $10,000, if only for a few minutes, is proof that its dry spell is ending. Bitcoin’s price has barely changed for almost two months and only now is its fate beginning to change. 

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The last time Bitcoin’s price surpassed $10,000 was June 2. Then, the price of Bitcoin hit highs of $10,200, according to data from metrics site CoinMarketCap. But it wasn’t to last and Bitcoin hovered around $9,200 for the rest of June and all of July—until now. 

The price point of $10,000 is important for Bitcoin because that was roughly the price of Bitcoin before the coronavirus-inspired market crash earlier this year, which virtually cut the price of Bitcoin in two in as many days. Bitcoin has been recovering from the crash ever since, and surpassing $10,000 would mean that it’s made a full recovery. 

One can only speculate why Bitcoin has increased. It might be because there’s a lot of interest in DeFi, or decentralized finance, right now. DeFi refers to non-custodial financial products, most of which live on Ethereum. Ethereum today hit a peak of $316, its highest price since July 2019. 

Before today’s price rise, lots of Bitcoin made its way to exchanges, according to a recent report by Glassnode. For the first time since January, more Bitcoin entered exchanges this month than left it. 

Another thing that supports this theory: Bitcoin is losing dominance to altcoins. According to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin’s dominance over the cryptocurrency market is only 62%, the lowest it’s been since last July. 

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“Therefore, it makes sense [that] the net flows of bitcoin to exchanges start to pump again, as most investors and traders use exchanges to switch from BTC into [altcoins],” Pedro Febrero, a market analyst at Quantum Economics, told Decrypt.

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.

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