Jameson Lopp, a highly regarded bitcoin developer and the lead engineer at BitGo, has stated that the bitcoin price is building momentum to get through the SegWit2x hard fork scheduled for November 16.

My theory: Bitcoin's building up momentum to bust through the SegWit2X fork. 🙃 pic.twitter.com/gX5gT9DqZl — Jameson Lopp (@lopp) November 3, 2017

$3,300 to $7,400 Within October

Since early October, the price of bitcoin has increased from $3,300 to $7,400, by over $4,100 within a 30-day span. Several analysts like Max Keiser have attributed the recent surge in the price of bitcoin to the market’s optimism surrounding the launch of bitcoin futures exchanges by CME and CBOE, two of the world’s largest options exchanges.

In addition to the entrance of institutional and retail traders, Lopp explained that the price of bitcoin is likely increasing continuously due to the market’s confidence over bitcoin’s mid-term growth and the decline in support for SegWit2x.

This week, three companies including BitGo and South American bitcoin exchange Bitso have hinted of pulling out of the NYA SegWit2x agreement. While major bitcoin platforms such as Coinbase and Blockchain have remained in the SegWit2x agreement, many businesses have rejected the SegWit2x hard fork because of its contentious nature.

Daniel Bogel, a Bitso executive, wrote:

“There are few things that are clear to me about this upcoming Fork. But the lack of consensus is definitely one of them. Given this is a technical mailing list, I would urge everyone to rethink the S2X code from a technical perspective. The code base was written as an upgrade to Bitcoin. I believe there is enough hard data out there to make it clear that S2X is no longer an upgrade. F2Pool backed down Slush Pool was never in ViaBTC said none of their customers are requesting S2X BTC.top said they will just mine whatever is more profitable When do we stop and rethink?”

Wouldn’t SegWit2x Supporters Invest in Bitcoin and Lead a Rally?

Several analysts in the past have also stated that investors and businesses that support the SegWit2x hard fork would also invest in bitcoin as the only way to obtain SegWit2x coin (B2X) upon its hard fork is to posses bitcoin prior to the fork.

Hence, some have suggested that the support for SegWit2x could have led the bitcoin price to increase, as more investors would have purchased bitcoin to obtain B2X on November 16.

The demand for SegWit2x certainly cannot be dismissed in evaluating the recent trend in the price of bitcoin because investors who support the hard fork would hold bitcoin to obtain B2X. But, as developers and respected figures such as Lopp have noted, it is far more likely that the community’s confidence in the original bitcoin network and the likelihood of the legacy chain remaining as the majority chain, or bitcoin, have contributed to the recent surge in the bitcoin price.

In the short-term, it is likely that the bitcoin price will continue to climb upwards supported by momentum established through the US bitcoin market’s optimism in the cryptocurrency’s mid-term trend.