It seems the US government is finally starting to take Bitcoin seriously after remarks yesterday from US Federal Reserve President Jerome Powell the sent the world’s most famous cryptocurrency surging back passed the $10,000 mark as it had done just a few days earlier.
In closely watched remarks yesterday, Congressman Bill Foster raised concerns about the need to keep pace with China’s digital currency ambitions which brought a very interesting response from the Fed’s Powell who said there are “lot of projects underway” refereeing to steps the Fed are taking to address the issue with China.
Mr Powell also noted that Bitcoin is starting to become a safe haven asset amongst investors which is starting to rival the current favorite which is gold,
"Bitcoin is a good example. Really almost no one uses bitcoin for payments, they use it as an alternative to gold, It's a store of value, a speculative store of value, like gold." Mr Powell told congress.
With the US government now seemingly onboard with Bitcoin, this just adds another reason to snap up bitcoin according to analysts with the other reasons being the threat of war, the corona virus which is becoming worse by the day , and also the halving event for Bitcoin which is due to take place in May.
“The sentiment of ‘BTC as a safe haven asset’ continues to hold water as major world events such as last month’s debacle with Iran and the U.S. helped drive prices higher” said Tim Shaler, chief economist and professional trader at iTrust Capital.
“We believe one of the key drivers over the past 5 weeks or so of the rapid rise of BTC/USD may have been the threat of war with Iran,” Shaler said.
Gavin Smith, the CEO of crypto consortium Panxora, also weighed into the latest price rise by giving his opinion on the reasons behind such a move,
“BTC started rising during the market sell-off triggered by coronavirus. That was just the short-term catalyst, the underlying driver is the Bitcoin halving event in May. Previous halving events have seen some of the larger participants hold off on releasing BTC into the market in anticipation of a rise during the event. We believe this same dynamic is currently in play.”