UPDATED 21:06 EST / DECEMBER 20 2018

BLOCKCHAIN

Bitcoin breaks through $4K as ‘Santa Claus rally’ continues to gather steam

The price of bitcoin today broke through $4,000 as the so-called “Santa Claus rally” that started on Dec. 17 continues to gather steam.

After a horrific year that saw its price drop from a high of nearly $20,000, bitcoin hit its bottom of $3,139.96 on Dec. 15.

On Dec. 17, bitcoin rose from $3,236.84 to $3,503.20 while the following day it was up again, to $3,683.14, as of 9:20 p.m. EST. That was thanks to a report that Tether, a stablecoin used to trade bitcoin, had money in the bank to back its value.

Forward to today and bitcoin surged through the $4,000 mark. The latest rise came at 10 a.m. EST with bitcoin up from $3,748.15 to $4007.53 a hour later. As of 8:50 p.m. EST, bitcoin was trading at $4,126.74 after having traded in a price band of between $4,000 and $4,100 for most of the rest of the day.

“The surge [since] Monday represents a strong push off the key support level of $3,000 per coin,” Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at social trading platform eToro, told CNBC. “This is an extremely significant movement that may end up creating a floor for the battered down cryptocurrency.”

Not everyone was as positive on the rally. Marouane Garcon, managing director of crypto-to-crypto derivatives platform Amulet, told Forbes that while the recent price rally points to positive investor sentiment, “traders must be careful as this may be a fake-out. “Right now it isn’t a good time to buy and it hasn’t been for a while. It’s too choppy.”

The growing price of bitcoin has been reflected across other leading cryptocurrencies, with all continuing to see strong price increases since the beginning of the Santa Claus rally.

While bitcoin was up almost 10 percent over the last 24 hours, Ethereum rose 17 percent, Bitcoin Cash jumped 56 percent and Ripple XRP rose almost 6 percent, according to data from Coinbase.

Photo: Public Domain Pictures

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