This morning, bitcoin is up to $7500.
Some investors are probably giddy. We haven’t seen numbers like this since prior to Christmas, and other $7500 prices show in year-over-year troughs, as in last October and last May, with year-long highs of nearly double that value.
It’s good news for short-term Bitcoin traders, but what’s behind the price increase?
Last week, the coin was still languishing at $7,100.
Omkar Godbole at Coindesk has some theories. Godbole has been regularly reporting on BTC analysis for years.
“Notably, the cryptocurrency picked up a bid at lows near $6,850 after the U.S. launched an airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport, killing top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani,” Godbole writes this morning. “Tensions escalated over the weekend, with Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei promising revenge and President Trump warning Tehran against retaliatory actions. Through all this, Bitcoin remained bid and hit a two-week high of $7,580 earlier today. Hence, many in the investor community think the US-Iran tensions are powering gains in Bitcoin.”
Godbole cites remarks by Galaxy Digital’s Michael Novogratz, who has been a champion of higher Bitcoin prices for a long time.
“The more I analyze this Iranian situation, the more bullish gold and $btc I become,” Novogratz said in a series of tweets yesterday. “Iraq will (sic) expelling US troops. Iran will have more pull in Iraq which is what they always wanted. Saudi isn’t in a position to want a conflict. Mideast less stable. Equals more volatility.”
“Bullish on assets,” responded user matt Malone, “bearish on humanity.”
Here’s what Billy Bambrough, crypto and Bitcoin contributor, has to say at Forbes:
“The Bitcoin price has bounced from its earlier lows following news the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds Force, general Qasem Soleimani, has been killed by U.S. forces in Iraq.”
Stay tuned.
