Bitcoin prices rose over the last week, pushing higher as the sentiment surrounding the digital currency strengthened. This increase represents a gain of more than 10%.

1. teamsteverhyner.com http://www.teamsteverhyner.com/bitcoin-price-passes-420-mark-amid-institutional-attention/
Steven L.
Rhyner
Bitcoin Price Passes $420 Mark Amid Institutional Attention
Bitcoin prices rose over the last week, pushing higher as the sentiment
surrounding the digital currency strengthened.
Bitcoin was trading at $421.69 at 12:00am (UTC) on 19th February, compared
to $377.82 on 12th February at 12:00am (UTC), according to the CoinDesk USD
Bitcoin Price Index (BPI).
This increase represents a gain of more than 10%.
This week provided a contrast to the prior seven-day period between 4th
February and 11th February, when
the digital currency hovered in a
range between roughly $390 and
$370, additional BPI figures reveal.
The price of bitcoin increased on 12th February, rising from $377.82 at 12:00 am (UTC) to $383.10 at 23:00 (UTC),
before continuing this upward climb the following day, reaching $392.34 at 23:00 (UTC). The digital currency
suffered a loss on 14th February, but then continued to appreciate for the remainder of the week.
Market participants traded a total of 15.2 million bitcoins from 12th February to 19th February at 10:40 am (EST),
according to data from Bitcoinity. China-based OKCoin was responsible for 47.45% of this transaction volume for
the week, and 6.785 million bitcoins were traded through this bourse between 11th February and 17th February.
Huobi accounted for another 44.92% of total trading volume between 12th February and 19th February, and market
participants transacted 7.412 million bitcoins through this exchange between from 11th February to 17th February.
Blockchain praise
Other developments coincided with the price appreciation that bitcoin enjoyed during the week, as it was announced
that the central banks of both the eurozone and China are looking into blockchain technology.
More specifically, the European Central Bank revealed 17th February that it is delving into how this technology could
either improve or hamper the infrastructure the region uses to settle securities and payments.
In addition, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, stated in an interview with Caixin Weekly that
the central bank is exploring blockchain, as well as other technologies, to establish and run an electronic cash
network.
The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) provided news of its own, announcing plans to use blockchain tech as

2. part of a technology transformation program. As a result of this initiative, the bourse may develop a new method for
settling equities trades.
While these developments may be uplifting, they will not solve bitcoin’s challenges, for example, its current capacity
issue, which continues to add uncertainty to global markets.
Once the digital currency’s community overcomes this difficulty, sentiment could improve markedly, with Tim
Enneking, the chairman of Crypto Currency Fund, a digital currency-focused hedge fund, predicting that bitcoin will
enjoy a “major spike.”
Sentiment improves
Bitcoin prices moved higher as the sentiment of global traders improved somewhat. In addition, markets enjoyed
tailwinds as the adoption of both bitcoin and blockchain technology grew.
While bitcoin prices had responded strongly to the highly visible exit of bitcoin developer Mike Hearn, plunging
roughly 15% on 15th January, the impact of this event began to fade this week.
Hearn, who was a developer of the digital currency for more than five years, declared that the bitcoin network had
failed. Several major media outlets, including The New York Times, Fortune and The Guardian, all covered Hearn’s
decision to move on.
Because the current bitcoin protocol limits these transactions, Hearn argued, the transaction network is currently
highly unreliable at times.
Others see this as the natural growing pains of a new technology.
“Bitcoin is being challenged because it is a victim of its own success,” Enneking said. “If transactions keep
increasing at the current rate, bitcoin will have a hard time keeping up.”
Enneking went on to predict that the bitcoin community will hold off on making decisions as long as it can, but that it
“is better off reaching a decision that is suboptimal than not reaching a decision at all.”
While there is still no solution to the transaction limit issue, bitcoin prices have seemingly recovered after hitting a
local low of $358.77 in January.
Re-posted from www.coindesk.com February 19, 2016 by Charles L. Bovaird
Charles L. Bovaird II is a financial writer and consultant with strong knowledge of securities markets and investing
concepts.
Follow Charles Bovaird on Twitter here.
Investment image via Shutterstock

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