On August 12, 2017, at approximately 9:40 PM EDT, the price of bitcoin climbed to a new all-time high of $4,000 per BTC across global exchanges. This milestone comes just seven days after bitcoin first surpassed the $3,000 mark, meaning the cryptocurrency gained $1,000 in value in just one week.
Market Data and Global Demand
At the time of writing, bitcoin's weighted average price stands at $4,140. The total market capitalization of bitcoin is roughly $66 billion, accounting for 47% of the entire cryptocurrency market cap of $134 billion. Trading volume over the past 24 hours has increased from $1.7 billion to $2.3 billion.
According to Google Trends, the strongest demand for bitcoin currently comes from the United States, Japan, China, South Korea, and India. However, interest in the cryptocurrency is growing rapidly in nearly every country worldwide. Data from Coin Dance shows that LocalBitcoins trading volumes are also soaring in all tracked nations.
Mining Ecosystem and Network Hashrate
The price surge has also driven mining profitability to record highs. The bitcoin network's hashrate has reached 6.1 Exahash per second, up from 4.2 Exahash per second when the price hit $2,000 in May. Mining revenue is at an all-time high, making 2017 an extremely profitable year for miners.
Analyst Prediction Fulfilled
This breakout also validates a prediction made by Goldman Sachs two months ago. Chief technical analyst Sheba Jafari stated at the time: 'Bitcoin has a minimum target that goes out to 3,212. There's potential to extend as far as 3,915. It just might take time to get there.' Bitcoin has not only reached but exceeded that upper target.
Community Reaction
Cryptocurrency enthusiasts are ecstatic about bitcoin's performance. Social media and forums are flooded with screenshots of $4,000 price tickers and humorous 'roller coaster guy' memes. Some long-term holders nonchalantly remarked, 'Meh — Getting boring, wake me up when we're at $10k please.'
Where bitcoin goes from here remains to be seen, but the $4,000 mark has already cemented itself as a historic milestone in the digital asset space.