Bitcoin breaches $10,000 for the first time in 15 months; here's why

The world's most widespread cryptocurrency Bitcoin breached the $10,000 mark on Friday, for the first time in 15 months (since March 2018) and retraced more than half of its historic increase.

After crossing $10,000, the coin continues its strong gains for a third consecutive day and further rose by about 5 per cent to around $10,500, as per prices compiled by Bitstamp available on the Bloomberg terminal.

As per cryptocurrency experts, there is a renewed mainstream interest in cryptocurrencies and the underlying blockchain technology that has pushed the market in an upward trend after Facebook launched its digital currency Libra on Tuesday.

Bitcoin has skyrocketed 173% since the beginning of the year and gained over 27% over the past month.

Earlier in December 2017, before the bursting of the cryptocurrency bubble, the digital currency surged 1,400% to hit an all-time high of $19,511. However, the virtual currency declined 74 per cent in 2018. The world's largest cryptocurrency, reached a near-term low of about $3,100 in December 2018 and traded in the $3,000-$4,000 range for the first four months of 2019.

(Edited by Rupa Burman Roy)

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