Bubble blaster: Bitcoin skyrockets toward $13,000 as frenzy grips crypto market

The price of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency hit a 17-month high on Wednesday, with bitcoin surging above $12,900. The digital currency is already up 40 percent this month.

Data from CoinMarketCap shows bitcoin has surpassed 60 percent market dominance for the first time since April 2017, with a capitalization of $226 billion. The cryptocurrency’s year-to-year performance is up by more than 250 percent, according to Messari.io.

Ethereum, the second-biggest cryptocurrency, was up 5.5 percent on Wednesday, taking its gains to 150 percent for the year.

Some analysts link the enthusiasm in cryptocurrencies to the release of Facebook’s cryptocurrency libra, among other factors.

Bitcoin (BTC) prices could match their all-time high of $20,000 within the next two weeks and could hit $50,000 - $100,000 by the end of the year, eToro analyst Simon Peters was cited as saying by Cointelegraph.com

According to the analyst, it took seven to 14 days for the cryptocurrency to reach the record figure of $20,000 when it was last at $11,800. He, however, cautioned that his short-term prediction is based on the assumption that bitcoin maintains its current parabolic trajectory.

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