The price of bitcoin hit a record high today and proceeded to settle at around $6300 at the time of this writing, with the current market cap totaling $105.3 billion. This surge was fueled by the announcement of the bitcoin futures by the world's largest exchange. This increase was reflected in the cryptocurrency market at large, with close to $9 billion being added to the total crypto market cap on Sunday. Our website lists the current total market cap just shy of $180 billion.

However, the continual rise of the price of bitcoin comes as a bit of a surprise when considering the context of events currently surrounding the world's most popular cryptocurrency. The decline of the Chinese market, which once accounted for 90% all trading volume, the upcoming activation of the SegWit2x hard fork and Vietnam's banning of the use of bitcoin are all events that would make one expect a cooling down of the market.

Other key cryptocurrencies such as ethereum and Bitcoin Cash recently underwent substantial price increases in the last week as well, with ethereum reaching a peak of $309 and Bitcoin Cash shooting up by more than 20% last Sunday.