Bitcoin Hits Record High Surpassing $7,500 Now With A Market Cap Of Over $120 Billion
The $7,555 figure is nearly $1,500 higher than our previous article on October 21st. That means that Bitcoin is currently sitting pretty with a market cap of roughly $125 billion. For comparison, second place Ethereum has a market cap of “just” $28 billion. It was just a few months ago when everyone thought that Ethereum was going to eclipse Bitcoin in market cap, but at this point, we don’t see that happening anytime soon.
Despite some negative commentary from high-profile people in the financial industry, there are those that think cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum are here to stay, and that we had better get used to it. "This is bitcoin crossing the divide from the wild west of finance to the mainstream," explained Crypto Compare CEO Charles Hayter in an email interview with CNBC.
"Futures from an incumbent exchange bring Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies into the regulatory fold. This allows more complex financial products to be created and will eventually open the doors to institutional money."
Those comments differ greatly from Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam, who is still watching Bitcoin with a skeptical eye. "I think most banks in the current state of regulation have little or no appetite to get involved in a currency which has such anti-money laundering challenges," said Thiam last week. “From what we can identify, the only reason today to buy or sell Bitcoin is to make money, which is the very definition of speculation and the very definition of a bubble.”
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has been even more critical of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, stating back in September, "It's worse than tulip bulbs. It won't end well. Someone is going to get killed. Currencies have legal support. It will blow up." Dimon went on to add, "It's just not a real thing, eventually it will be closed."
For those keeping core, Bitcoin is up nearly 650 percent since the start of 2017.
(Image Source: Vitalij Fleganov/flickr)
