Bitcoin hits $10,000 for first time in seven weeks

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. 

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. 

“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.