According to data from CryptoCompare, at around 16:20 UTC on Wednesday, Bitcoin broke through the $13,000 resistance level, and by 16:55 UTC had reached $13,409, to set yet another new high for 2019, as can be seen in the price chart shown below:

This means that in the past 24-hour period, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) has gone up an incredible 17.82%.

Currently, the total reported market cap for all coins/tokens is $357.97 billion, while Bitcoin’s market cap is $240.43 billion, which means that Bitcoin is enjoying a dominance rate of 65.37%.

Although Bitcoin’s price is still down 34% from the all-time high (ATH) it reached in December 2017, it’s year-to-date return on investment (ROI) is a very impressive 255.62%.

Interestingly, unlike last night’s price surge that started around 21:10 UTC (June 25), this surge is helping almost all the top 50 (by market cap) altcoins register decent gains as well. For example, at press time, Ether (ETH) is trading at $349.25 (+12.83%), XRP is trading at $0.4845 (+3.33%), and Zcash (ZEC) is trading at $118.38 (+12.60%).

Most of this year’s gain in the price of Bitcoin has come in the past three months. During this period, the price of Bitcoin has gone up from $4,036 on May 28 to today’s $13,409, i.e. a rise of over 232%. So, what are the reasons for Bitcoin’s remarkable performance?

As usual, it is impossible to point to any one particular positive catalyst, and the real answer is likely to be that there is a cocktail of forces at work. Some plausible explanations are:

the increasing legitimization of the crypto space due to involvement of the Wall Street establishment, such as Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Fidelity, and J.P. Morgan, and the realization that all of these efforts are likely to result in greater institutional interest in Bitcoin;

the growing realization that the approval of a Bitcoin ETF by the U.S. Securities and Exchange (SEC) is more of a matter of when and not if;

the entry of Facebook (with its over two billion users) into the crypto space with project Libra could result in growing mainstream awareness of crypto in general and Bitcoin in particular;

escalating political tensions (especially between the U.S. and China) could be causing some people to look for safe havens such as physical gold and digital gold (Bitcoin);

the increasing awareness that Bitcoin’s next block reward halving is less than 11 months away (this will, of course, lead to a reduction in the supply of new Bitcoin to the market), an event the lead-up to which has historically been accompanied by large increases in the price of Bitcoin;

yesterday’s announcement by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) that it had approved LedgerX’s application for a Designated Contract Market (DCM) license, which means that LedgerX can now offer physically settled Bitcoin futures contracts to both retail and institutional clients; and

the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO).

As for what the top crypto analysts and traders think about Bitcoin’s latest price action, here are a couple of reactions:

Why can Bitcoin easily hit $20k new all-time highs this month? Because the order book on $BTC is thin With only 17+M in circulating supply and millions already lost we could be looking at only 13M-14M available to trade Many of these are held by hodlers not willing to sell now pic.twitter.com/QkTHCSZROf — Josh Rager 📈 (@Josh_Rager) June 26, 2019

The FOMO is real people! My first ever mention in the Financial Times. Great to see @FT finally warming up to #bitcoin. pic.twitter.com/ZROrnycJhj — Mati Greenspan (@MatiGreenspan) June 26, 2019

$BTC is trading as if a large nation were about to announce the inclusion of bitcoin as a reserve asset. That's how bullish price action has been. The buying pressure during the Asian session was extraordinary. (just an analogy, not saying that's the case) — Alex Krüger (@krugermacro) June 26, 2019

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