Bitcoin price rises 9% to $15,000 for the first time since January 2018

According to Bitpush data, Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency with the largest market value, was once priced at US$15,200, with a daily increase of up to 9%.

This is also the first time that the price of Bitcoin has exceeded $15,000 since January 2018. Bitcoin's trend on Thursday continued the upward momentum that began in October this year. After breaking through $14,000 the day before, it took advantage of the victory to break through $15,000 in one fell swoop.

The next target price for Bitcoin will be the cryptocurrency's all-time high of around $20,000, and to reach that price, Bitcoin will need to rise another 30%. According to Bitpush data, Bitcoin has risen 40% in the past month and 100% so far this year.

The rise in Bitcoin prices is driven by macro factors. The economic stimulus and quantitative easing policies launched by various countries in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are driving the further depreciation of fiat currencies, and institutional investors are beginning to enter the crypto space to hedge against inflation.

Anthony Pompliano, co-founder and partner of cryptocurrency investment firm Morgan Creek, told Reuters, “Bitcoin is the big winner in the current macro environment. As we saw after the 2008 liquidity crisis, when the Fed adopted quantitative easing measures, inflation hedging assets performed very well.”

Bitcoin's fundamentals are also healthy, whether it is the network hash rate and the number of active addresses, or the futures trading volume and the amount of open positions are all at a high level. As industry insiders have repeatedly said, the ecosystem of Bitcoin and the entire crypto industry is no longer the same as it was in 2017.

Sven Henrich, founder of Northman Trader, believes that as long as the price of Bitcoin can stay above the breakout trendline, it has "huge upside." He sees Bitcoin as a hedge against the collapse of fiat currencies, and the real test is whether Bitcoin and stocks can decouple.

According to an earlier report by BitPush, Bloomberg commodity strategist Mike McGlone said that Bitcoin will challenge the resistance level of $20,000 in 2021, and supply and demand are the main indicators that determine the price of Bitcoin. As early as October this year, McGlone predicted that "Bitcoin will be worth $100,000 in 2025."

PlanB, a well-known crypto analyst on Twitter, believes that the current market trend is like the bull markets in 2013 and 2017. He said, "This scene seems familiar."