The price of the digital currency reached its peak at $453 this morning. The reason may lie in the publication of the SegWit protocol which is expected to solve the long-standing bitcoin block size problem.

According to the CoinDesk GPI index, after reaching $453 this morning, the digital currency lost 1%. Currently, the price of bitcoin fluctuates around $448.



Over the last three days, the price of the digital currency gained more than $25, raising from $427 to $453.

Brokers at BTC-e Exchange expressed cautious optimism about the growth of bitcoin in the next few hours. While some enthusiasts yelled the traditional “to the moon” battle cry, others were buying small amounts of the digital currency with the hope to gain some extra dollars this day.

Bitcoin made some gains following the release of SegWit protocol. The protocol is still to be improved but is already available for download by everyone willing to upgrade.

On 20 April, Pieter Wuille, a bitcoin core developer, published a complete code of the SegWit. The most important feature of the SegWit is that it allows more transactions to be included in each block due to the relocation of transaction parts containing digital signatures. Separate signature files will be put alongside the main blockchain.

The publication of the protocol provoked another round of discussions in the bitcoin community and stimulated the growth of the digital currency. The spreading adoption of the blockchain technology also contributed to the growth.

Despite the smaller scale of fluctuations this year, the price of bitcoin remains unstable and depends much on media hypes around the digital currency. In the second half of January, the block size debate contributed to the weakening of the cryptocurrency, when its price fell well below $400, reaching $375.

The refusal of bitcoin key players to adopt hard forks, as well as the end of the Lunar New Year celebrations, contributed to the growth of the cryptocurrency rate. As Bitcoin has passed $400 mark, it stabilised on the new level and has been fluctuating between $420 and $440.