The cryptocurrency, bitcoin, has reached a milestone in its new climb to reach new highs. The digital currency has topped $10,000 and is currently worth $10,490 at the time of writing, according to CoinMarketCap. This is the first time in over 12 months since bitcoin has been worth more than $10,000 after it slipped in price in the first half of 2018.
Almost all bitcoin enthusiasts have expected bitcoin to jump up in price again following 2017 when it experienced a meteoric rise in value, however, it has had some false starts. Before it plummeted to less than $4,000 last year, there was a point when it looked like it was set to rise again. Given these false starts, it"s unclear at this point what bitcoin will do this time around.
Last week, Facebook announced that it was launching its own blockchain-based cryptocurrency known as Libra. While it"s certainly interesting based on the fact that it"ll nearly eliminate transaction fees and have billions of users from the get-go, it does have one drawback which is that Facebook has a lot of control over it, whereas bitcoin is much more free in that regard. Bitcoin"s problem lies in reaching users, but proponents argue that its value could increase as companies come up with ways to get average people using it.
Bitcoin bulls such as Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, believe that bitcoin has a bright future with some predicting a $250,000 price tag by as soon as 2022. It"s not clear how bitcoin will reach these lofty heights but it"s definitely going in the right direction this weekend.