Could Bitcoin’s Bounce Back to $10,000 Bring New Buyers?

Yesterday (Thursday, February 15^th), bitcoin rose above the $10,000 mark, surpassing a critical level thanks to stronger trader sentiment. On the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (BPI), the digital currency soared to as high as $10,218. This consequentially made the bitcoin market, which is the largest digital currency market by capitalization, go up by more than 70 percent after a recent low of less than $6,000.

“Hitting $10k demonstrates the renewed energy in the crypto market, as it shakes off some of the volatility from the start of the year,” stated Iqbal Gandham, the UK Managing Director of eToro, a social trading platform.

In general, the cryptocurrency market has experienced wide-spread fluctuations in the last couple of months following speculations and rumors of a number of regulatory developments pertaining to how these digital assets are going to be handled. However, in sentiment driven markets, such as the bitcoin’s, key price levels changes like the bitcoin’s rise to $10,000 appears to attract new buyers who in turn help the price. Bitcoin’s recovery can also be attributed to statements from certain regulators which have gone a long way to alleviate fears of possible severe crackdowns which is a huge motivational factor for new buyers.

For the UK-based eToro social trading platform, user growth decelerated towards the end of January. This was at about the same time that bitcoin’s price started taking some rather significant hits. The rate of withdrawals, on the other hand, has not increased which implies that users were not selling out their bitcoin and that the demand for new customers could have contributed to the previous gains.

Investors Still Down $60 Billion in 2018

While bitcoin’s recovery should be a slice of hope for everyone in the community, investors who bought into the cryptocurrency at the beginning of the year will still have to brave a stormy period. The digital currency kicked off the year at $14,000, down from the $20,000 all-time high of December 2017. As such, since the year began, its market cap is still down by approximately $60 billion.