Bitcoin is extending its gains after the 25-minute shutdown on GDAX...

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Mike Novogratz - self-described as the "Forrest Gump of Bitcoin" - is on the wires calling Bitcoin a "cultural revolution."

"The world is in blockchain speculative phase... not close to the end of the speculative phase" Novo added that Bitcoin futures will give rise to ETFs and even broader adoption and a "sell-off after the speculative phase is complete." "Cryptokitties will be a fad" "It's hard to mitigate volatility risk in Bitcoin" Novogratz says "banks will be slow to move into the industry and doesn't see quick adoption of Bitcoin as a currency" For now he has 25% of his net worth invested in Bitcoin/Blockchain and warns investors to "be careful" in non-Bitcoin tokens.

GDAX is back up after a 25 minute 'glitch'... and Bitcoin is rebounding

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GDAX just broke...

Additionally, Bitfinex says it is under a significant denial of service attack.

As Bitcoin tumbled $4,500 from its highs...

And now the giveback... Bitcoin is down $3000 from its $19,600 highs...but is still up 30% on the day

Bwuahahaha... $19k...on GDAX

After tagging $19,697, Bitcoin prices tumbled to $17,900...

Prices are varying dramatically across exchanges with $2000 differences.

For those keeping track, this is how long it has taken the cryptocurrency to cross the key psychological levels:

$0000 - $1000: 1789 days

$1000- $2000: 1271 days

$2000- $3000: 23 days

$3000- $4000: 62 days

$4000- $5000: 61 days

$5000- $6000: 8 days

$6000- $7000: 13 days

$7000- $8000: 14 days

$8000- $9000: 9 days

$9000-$10000: 2 days

$10000-$11000: 1 day

$11000-$12000: 6 days

$12000-$13000: 17 hours

$13000-$14000: 4 hours

$14000-$15000: 10 hours

$15000-$16000: 5 hours

$16000-$17000: 2 hours

$17000-$18000: 10 minutes

$18000-$19000: 3 minutes

Coinbase is struggling to keep up...

We are currently experiencing record high traffic. This is resulting in some customers having slow performance or issues logging into their https://t.co/bCG11KveHS accounts. We are actively working to resolve this as quickly as possible. — Coinbase (@coinbase) December 7, 2017

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Update: $18,000, that is all!

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Update: WTF! $17,000...

We do note that GDAX pricing appears to be at a significant premium to several other exchanges.

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Update: Bitcoin just surpased $16,000... speechless...

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In the last 36 hours, Bitcoin has blasted through $12,000, $13,000, $14,000, and now $15,000 levels in an unprecedented 28% surge...

With a market cap of around $250 billion, Bitcoin is bigger than Proctor & Gamble and approaching the size of Wal-Mart as the 12 biggest 'company' in the S&P 500.

As CoinTelegraqph reports, the price is likely being driven by news of the imminent launch of Bitcoin futures trading. CBOE will be launching their futures market this coming Sunday, December 10, with CME Group following on December 18. Nasdaq plans to launch futures trading in the summer of 2018 and Japan’s Tokyo Financial Exchange is preparing to launch futures trading as well.

Bloomberg has announced that brokerage firms TD Ameritrade and Ally Invest will be offering Bitcoin futures trades to their clients. Even J.P. Morgan Chase may follow suit, despite CEO Jamie Dimon’s infamous views on the digital currency.

GDAX, Coinbase’s digital currency exchange, has been leading the rally all day. The price on GDAX is currently about $500 ahead of other Western Bitcoin exchanges. The likeliest - and most bullish - explanation is that Coinbase is the easiest way for new Bitcoin investors to get involved. Consequently, when GDAX leads the charge as it has today, it probably means new “retail” investors are fueling the rally.

Meanwhile, as CoinDesk reports, Ron Paul wants to know: would you take $10,000 in bitcoin, cash or something else?

The former U.S. Congressman from Texas is currently holding a poll on his official Twitter account that asks in which form they would take $10,000 from a "wealthy person". The catch: you can't get rid of it for 10 years.

Paul – who earlier this year called for the U.S. government to "stay out" of bitcoin – put the question to his more than 650,000 followers, asking if they would take $10,000 in the form of bitcoin, dollars, gold or 10-year U.S. Treasury Bonds. The result thus far – one hour remains in the poll at press time – indicate that of the more than 70,000 responses, 54 percent expressed support for bitcoin.

Gold took the second-highest amount with 36 percent, followed by a mere 8 percent for the 10-year bonds. Just 2 percent indicated that they would take the Federal Reserve Notes if offered.

A wealthy person wants to gift you $10,000. You get to choose in which form you'll take the gift. But there's a catch: You must keep the gift in the form that you choose, and you can't touch it for 10 years.



In which form would you take the gift? — Ron Paul (@RonPaul) December 5, 2017

Speaking with TheStreet in October, Paul conceded that he's no expert on cryptocurrencies (back in 2014, he argued that bitcoin wasn't "true money"). That said, he voiced his support for cryptocurrency in the most recent interview, arguing that it lends credence to the emergence of alternative currencies against the U.S. dollar.

And while Bitcoin's eye-popping price movements have some observers saying the market is in bubble territory, Naval Ravikant, the co-founder of AngelList, while he's not ruling it out entirely, holds a less alarmist view.

"Money is a bubble that never pops," he said at yesterday's Token Summit II in San Francisco.

He told attendees:

"It's a consensus hallucination."

And speaking to the newfound attention to bitcoin, Ravikant said people are interested in growing the wealth that they have. With most savings accounts returning zero these days – as central banks conduct what Ravikant called their "grand money printing experiment" – the general public is looking for alternative places to store their money and watch it grow.

Bitcoin and other protocols seem to offer that, as even the less-developed cryptocurrencies are showing substantial returns.

"I think people are looking to solve their money problems," he said.

Additionally, Coindesk notes that the former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, has joined the many financial luminaries to recently criticize bitcoin's value.

Speaking to CNBC, Greenspan compared bitcoin to that of an early American form of money called "Continental currency" that came into use in 1775 and had become worthless by 1782. The paper-based legal tender was used at the time of the American Revolution and was not backed by a commodity such as gold.

Noting that bitcoin will likely suffer similar fate, Greenspan said that a "significant share" of Continental currency was still used to create "real goods and services," even though it had no ultimate worth.

He continued:

"Bitcoin is really a fascinating example of how human beings create value, and is not always rational ... It is not a rational currency in that case."

Greenspan's comments come as the value of a bitcoin is soaring beyond most expectations, having gained thousands of dollars in value in the last two days.

And in response to that...

And finally, for those calling this a "bubble" - we would humbly suggest you ain't seen nothing yet...