On Tuesday (April 2), around 07:20 UTC+1, the Bitcoin (BTC) price started a fast and furious rise to $4,740, an increase of over $542 in 30 minutes.

According to CryptoCompare, the BTC price is currently trading at $4733.50, an increase of over 14% in the past 24-hour period:

This is the highest level Bitcoin has been since 20 November 2018, as can be seen in the six-month chart shown below:

The spike in the Bitcoin price has also helped the other coins/tokens in the top 20 enjoy big gains; for example currently ETH is at $153.75, XRP is at $0.33, EOS is at $4.63, and LTC is at $67.90.

Bloomberg says that BTC “advanced as much as 23 percent to $5,078.52 as of 1:25 p.m. in Hong Kong, according to Bloomberg composite pricing.”

Over on Twitter, this was the reaction Yoni Asia, the founder and CEO of social trading platform eToro:

This seems like the only reason for the Bitcoin Jump to $5000 today, maybe people didn’t read the entire article … “Clayton himself has remained publicly silent on the matter so far, save for four astounding words: “happy April Fool’s Day.””#bitcoin https://t.co/FGqzmnxQbv — Yoni Assia (@yoniassia) April 2, 2019

Alex Saunders, a board member of Blockchain Australia, commented:

#Bitcoin just went up $1000 in hour. Over 20% even with a $70B market cap. Think about how good that just felt. How excited everyone in your #crypto circle was. That feeling is what will drive $BTC far higher in the coming years. No other asset class can offer the same rush. — Alex Saunders (@AlexSaundersAU) April 2, 2019

As for cryptocurrency trader/analyst Alex Krüger, this is what he had to say:

$BTC > 200 day moving average. — Alex Krüger (@krugermacro) April 2, 2019

That's what no resistance looks like. Nothing but hot air above 4200. The longer the wait, the harder the break. This is what technical analysis is for. $BTC +20% in 45 minutes. — Alex Krüger (@krugermacro) April 2, 2019

Based on the reactions in Crypto Twitter, we can say that today’s massive jump in the Bitcoin price is probably due to one or more of the following factors:

The general market sentiment that Bitcoin was either at a bottom or close to a bottom since in recent days it had seemed invincible to bad news, such as on March 29 when the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it had postponed making a decision on the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF proposal to 16 May 2019.

The April Fool’s article by Finance Magnates about the SEC approving both the VanEck and the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF proposals and allowing them to launch early next month may have led to some algorithmic buying of BTC, which could have in turn led to a short squeeze.

Once traders/investors saw the BTC price surge, many of those who had been sitting on the sidelines waiting for a bottom before buying or those people who wanted to speculate on a momentum play may have seen the ease by which previous resistance levels were broken in such a short time and accompnied by strong volume as a very bullish sign and therefore decided to buy out of fear of missing out (FOMO).

One person who believes in the FOMO theory is Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (“CZ”):

I guess this was true. Plenty of money ready to jump in, and in full FOMO mode. Everyone will be in Crypto. Don't get left behind! https://t.co/rfvRS7uhGK — CZ Binance (@cz_binance) April 2, 2019

Finally, if you are interested in long-term BTC price predictions, CryptoGlobe published on March 13 a report (on “the most rigorous and well researched price predictions” by leading crypto analysts/researchers) that could serve as a great starting point.

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