Bitcoin appears to be unstoppable these days, reaching impressive new record highs time after time. Today the price of a single Bitcoin is over $4000, a whopping $700 more than just seven days ago, completing an increase of over 20% in a week.
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Due to the price jump, the total value of the Bitcoin Blockchain is now worth about $70 billion. Putting this figure into perspective, it matches the market cap of PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL), which is now at its height as well. Considering that Bitcoin's market dominance is just under 50%, the entire cryptocurrency market value is now double the PayPal market cap at $140 billion. This means that investors think that blockchain-based solutions are worth twice as much as the current leading online Payments service.
Trying to explain this incredible valuation hike, we can point to SegWit adoption seeing like a done deal right now and further mainstream adoption of Bitcoin. The latest example of this is Fidelity Investments adding cryptocurrencies to its website.
Providing a trader's perspective, Iqbal V. Gandham, UK MD of eToro, commented: "Bitcoin hitting $4,000 is another milestone in long list of big moments the cryptocurrency has witnessed in recent weeks. Following a fall to $1800, it has come back strongly and relatively steadily. This is encouraging.
Furthermore, the ecosystem is also getting stronger. You now have more places to spend Bitcoin, more regulators thinking about the right infrastructure, and more investors learning about the asset. Speculation is rightly moving away from price and focusing on use cases.”
