Markets Report: Bitcoin hits $17,000 amid forecasts that All-Time Highs are next

Bitcoin gained over $1,000 to surge to more than $17,000 on November 17 as a night of steady trading culminated in a fresh uptick. 

Data from price trackers including CoinMarketCap showed Bitcoin reclaiming yet another milestone price level on Tuesday, with bulls firmly shaking off the weekend’s wobble.

Bitcoin added another 4.1% to its price on the day, press-time levels centering on $17,000 after highs of $17,100. 

Keiser: BTC will “pause” at $28,000

Despite misgivings from some traders, who believe that a correction is imminent, Bitcoin has behaved in line with a corresponding lack of selling pressure since it retook $16,000. The empty corridor on exchange order books lasts until previous all-time highs of $20,000 from 2017. 

As such, others set their sights on a retest of higher historic levels.

“Some people might sell at $20,000. I am not one of those people,” entrepreneur Alistair Milne summarized on Monday.

RT host Max Keiser followed suit, forecasting a return to $20,000, followed by a top of $28,000 before the market “paused.”

“Then higher,” he told Twitter followers. 

Quant analyst PlanB meanwhile highlighted Bitcoin’s progress in terms of another asset beyond the U.S. dollar: gold. Since the precious metal suffered post-election losses, Bitcoin has claimed new levels against it. In October, 1 BTC hit 7 ounces of gold.

“1 month later #bitcoin is 9 ounces of gold .. significant indeed,” he summarized.

A similar story has emerged in terms of other cryptocurrencies. BTC/USD was just 15% off its all-time highs on Tuesday, while largest altcoin ether remained at close to 70%.

Bitcoin’s silent rally 

Bitcoin’s successes in Q4 are notable for what statistician Willy Woo has termed “organic” growth—buy-ins by long-term investors and a lack of speculative activity. 

Stepwise growth has allowed the largest cryptocurrency to avoid a media storm and accompanying accusations of a bubble—a stark contrast to Q4 2017. In analysis on Tuesday, Bloomberg described the bull market as “the rally no one’s talking about.”

“The fascination with it has worn off,” Kathy Jones, chief fixed income strategist for Schwab Center for Financial Research, declared to the publication. 

“You have the hardcore ‘I’m a cryptocurrency investor’ group but it hasn’t really expanded because it’s been so volatile, there have been so many questions around security and what regulations might do. The number of questions I get on it now is a fraction of what I got a couple of years ago when it was really hot.”

On the retail side, however, there are growing signs that low-key interest is waiting in the wings. PayPal, which announced cryptocurrency support for 2021, sped up its preparations last week, cancelling a waiting list to buy Bitcoin and opening up purchases to all eligible U.S. users.

Paxful, the payment partner PayPal is using to handle the new feature, saw a 500% surge in trading volume in one month alone after the news was announced. 

“Tech companies leverage Bitcoin to defend their moat. Money is being reinvented,” Brandon Quittem, director of marketing at onboarding service Swan Bitcoin, said in a summary of Bitcoin’s prospects. 

“Companies are scrambling to acquire territory on the new frontier. Square has an early lead (CashApp), PayPal has entered the game. When Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook?”