Bitcoin Reaching For All-Time High

In the past week, we have seen BTC test $61800 USD multiple times on its journey back to all-time highs. With future contract rates rocketing over the weekend, altcoins rallying and general sentiment being positive, it appears to be a matter of time before the king of cryptos starts printing new highs again.

Bitcoin rose to $61,229 US, the highest in nearly a month, before falling back. On March 13, Bitcoin reached a record of $61,742 – the barrier the price is attempting to surpass right now. The cryptocurrency is up almost ninefold in the past year, a return that towers above traditional assets.

While it’s unclear if there’s causation, the price action comes just days before leading U.S. exchange Coinbase begins trading on Nasdaq in one of the crypto industry’s most anticipated events. A sign of the maturing market, the listing will likely give Wall Street traders their most accessible bet yet on growth in the space.

Elsewhere, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has said it’s close to offering investment vehicles for Bitcoin and other crypto-assets to private wealth clients. Morgan Stanley plans to open three funds that will enable crypto ownership. Additionally, PayPal and Visa have been using cryptocurrencies as part of their payments process.

The institutional FOMO is only amplified by the number of bullish reports published by respectable media and financial services companies such as Bloomberg, who in their latest “Crypto Outlook” report claim that bitcoin will reach a price of $400,000 by the end of Q4 2021.

Bloomberg points to BTC’s overall tendency for value to increase next to other factors like liquidity, volatility, number of bitcoin mining subsidy halving’s, among other macro events such as the pandemic, institutional investors seeking safety and BTC’s “store of value” argument only getting stronger.

Meanwhile, Ethereum has been on a tear, setting a new all-time high of $2191 as it continues its incredible form in 2021. The price action in the last week may be due to the long-awaited Berlin hard fork. As part of the upgrade and shift to PoS (Proof of Stake, as opposed to the current Proof of Work), the Berlin hard fork (blockchain split) is scheduled to be activated on block 12.244.000, which is expected to happen around 14 April 2021. The upgrade includes optimising contracts to address gas efficiencies that have seen transaction fees rise sharply (finally), updates to how the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) reads code, and changes to prevent denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks.

The Ethereum future price is expected to continue rising over the longer term. Billionaire investor Mark Cuban said on the Unchained podcast on 6 April that after the upgrade, applications on Ethereum will see it “dwarf” Bitcoin. Cuban said he now holds “a lot more” Ether than bitcoin.

Sure, Ethereum has the potential to outperform Bitcoin as it is more of a “technology” play whereas Bitcoin is a “store of value” play. At the end of the day, the crypto tide will raise all ships. But it is important to remain diversified in this space – especially in the volatile world that is crypto. Make sure you're in the right position as we gear up for potentially the next leg of this incredible crypto run we are in.