By Pascal Oparada (Social Media/Tech Reporter)
Bitcoin has been in a lull in recent months. The world’s largest cryptocurrency kept declining throughout 2018 peaking at $3,200 last December. Since then, it has been climbing slowly.
On Tuesday, the price of Bitcoin surged more than 15% in less than an hour. It briefly surpassed $5,000 in some exchanges and currently sits at $4,680, reports CoinMarketCap.
The price of Bitcoin is known to be volatile. The rebound brings back memories of 2017 when such rebound is thought to be something of the ordinary.
In fact, recent news has been fairly negative. A recent report by crypto index fund Bitwise had found that 95 per cent of Bitcoin trading volume is fake. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) delayed a decision on two possible Bitcoin ETF listings last week. And crypto exchange Bithumb was hacked to the tune of $13 million just last week.
The prices of other major cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum, XRP, EOS and Litecoin, all jumped considerably, though not as much as Bitcoin. The total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies currently stands at $158 billion.