Bitcoin Busts $1,000 Mark For First Time in Years

January 5, 2017 By: Steven Anderson

While you’re wishing everyone around you a happy new year, bitcoin is having a much happier new year than a lot of people expected. This happy new year was prompted by a major new run-up in the price of bitcoin, with it clearing $1,000 for the first time since 2013.

Bitcoin dropped below $1,000 not long after the collapse of the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange, where its high of $1,216.70 was achieved only weeks prior. That launched a major drop, as the price spiraled downward to reach a low of just over $220, back around August 2015.

Optimism stepped in as it so often does, and has some traders thinking that bitcoin may well reach a new high, hitting potentially as high as $3,000 a coin by the end of 2017. Granted, that’s a projection, but it might still reach those levels.

Could bitcoin reach the $3,000 mark? That might be a bit pie-in-the-sky, but knowing what we know so far, it’s entirely possible. Why? First, more sources are actually willing to take bitcoin as a payment method.

Those who won’t take it outright are helping to facilitate the conversion of bitcoin into a more palatable payment system, which is just taking bitcoin once removed. That’s enough to spark at least moderate growth, but carry on from there; the political landscape worldwide is actually becoming conducive to bitcoin operations.

From users who want more mobile payments—and there are few payment systems more mobile than a bitcoin wallet—to users who need a payment source that isn’t immediately connected to a fiat cash system like dollars, euros or yuan, there’s a clear demand for bitcoin.

Look at the demand for bitcoin in Greece following its economic calamity; that’s just one potential source of gain for bitcoin.

So while bitcoin may not reach the $3,000 a unit pricing some suggest, it’s certainly gaining ground. That’s good news for anyone who’s putting investment in this field, and for the mobile payments front in general.

There’s a lot of reason for this cryptocurrency to make gains, so keeping an eye on it may be worth a closer look.