Bitcoin price surpassed the $3,440 mark on August 8, sustaining its upward momentum established by the imminence of the Bitcoin Core development team’s scaling solution and transaction malleability fix Segregated Witness (SegWit) activation. SegWit, a solution which experts including Blockstack co-founder Ryan Shea had previously described as a Swiss Army Knife of a solution due to the wide range of bitcon’s existing problems it solves upon activation, is set to be integrated to bitcoin’s codebase in the upcoming days. Upon the activation of SegWit, bitcoin blocks and transactions are expected to be optimized by 75 percent and significantly decrease the
Bitcoin price surpassed the $3,440 mark on August 8, sustaining its upward momentum established by the imminence of the Bitcoin Core development team’s scaling solution and transaction malleability fix Segregated Witness (SegWit) activation.
SegWit, a solution which experts including Blockstack co-founder Ryan Shea had previously described as a Swiss Army Knife of a solution due to the wide range of bitcon’s existing problems it solves upon activation, is set to be integrated to bitcoin’s codebase in the upcoming days. Upon the activation of SegWit, bitcoin blocks and transactions are expected to be optimized by 75 percent and significantly decrease the size of bitcoin blocks in general.
Perhaps more importantly, SegWit tightens security measures of hardware bitcoin wallets such as Trezor and the bitcoin network in general by eliminating transaction malleability, which has become a major security issue for Bitcoin Cash (BCH), the newly forked cryptocurrency of the original bitcoin network.
The vast majority of analysts have attributed the recent rally of bitcoin to the imminence of SegWit and the market’s high anticipation towards Segwit activation. However, according to mainstream media analysts including Max Keiser at RT and Brian Kelly at CNBC, bitcoin’s rally has just begun as there are many more driving factors that are affecting the price of bitcoin.
On CNBC’s fast money, Kelly explained that there are three major driving factors of the recent momentum of bitcoin price apart from SegWit and they are:
- Increase in demand and adoption from institutional investors
- Completion of BCH fork
- No uncertainty regarding bitcoin’s short-term future
Kelly emphasized that the market, investors and traders have gained significant confidence in bitcoin and its ability to scale as the BCH fork had minimal impact on the bitcoin network and now, with SegWit activation in sight, there really is no uncertainty in bitcoin’s short-term future.
Increase in demand towards bitcoin from institutional investors has also been key, as casual investors and traders gained confidence from the optimism of investment firms like Fidelity, which manages trillions of dollars in assets. More to that, some of the largest markets in the world including the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), the largest options exchange in the US, have also announced the integration of bitcoin.
Earlier this week, CBOE entered into a strategic partnership with Gemini, the fourth largest bitcoin exchange in the US, to offer institutional investors and large-scale traders a method to invest in bitcoin.
Executive of the largest options exchange in U.S. tells CNBC, #bitcoin is here to stay.
Positive outlook on bitcoin and cryptocurrencies! pic.twitter.com/czYNuEljVZ
— Joseph Young (@iamjosephyoung) August 4, 2017
In consideration of the abovementioned factors and developments in the bitcoin and finance industries, analysts remain certain that the rally of bitcoin is just beginning. Max Keiser emphasized:
“Bitcoin set to cruise through $5,000. Government money printing monopolies are being replaced.”