Business Day (Nigeria)

Bitcoin records 63 consecutiv­e days above $10,000 surpassing 2017 milestone

- FRANK ELEANYA

It is now more than 63 consecutiv­e days in which the price of bitcoin has remained above $10,000. The milestone overshadow­s the record of 62 days set in 2017 from 1 December through 31 January 2018, when bitcoin reached its all-time high of just above $19,900.

According to analysts at

Luno and Arcane Research, the move means bitcoin has establishe­d itself as a 5-digit cryptocurr­ency in 2020. The cryptocurr­ency continues to hold strongly in September even with the uncertaint­y that is present and the setback for many altcoins.

As at press time, the price of the largest cryptocurr­ency by market value was at $10,717 respresent­ing a dip 0.33 percent within 24 hours.

The analysts also say the global market may impact the crypto market over the next few months, with the US election coming up in November and the constant uncertaint­y amidst the ongoing pandemic.

The market is also affected by reports that KuCoin, a Singapore- based digital asset exchange was breached by hackers. The hacker made large withdrawal­s of bitcoin and ethereum tokens to an unknown wallet on Friday, September 25, 2020. Other coins accessed by the hacker were the Defi projects OCEAN, AMPL, COMP, and SNX.

According to The Block Researcher, Larry Cermak, coins worth up to $ 280 million were stolen during the breach, making this the third-largest exchange hack in history, behind Mt. Gox (2014) and Coin.

Johnny Lyu, Kucoin CEO explained that the hackers were able to obtain private keys to the exchange’s hot wallets. KuCoin said it transferre­d was left in the wallets to new hot wallets, abandoned the old ones, and froze deposits and withdrawal­s.

Luno in its latest weekly report found that the volume of bitcoin transactio­ns has continued to trend downwards.

“The low volume over the past week indicates that neither bulls nor bears are confident in the current price range and confirms the relative uncertaint­y in the market right now,” the analysts said.

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