Bitcoin Holds $8,000 Price Point Amid Warnings Fast Growth Could See Lows Return

Bitcoin prices are holding steady today, April 19, one week after a surprise surge took the cryptocurrency up $1,000 to reach above $8,000 in the space of 30 minutes.

Capping a week of more moderate fluctuations around the $8,000 mark, commentators note support appears firm around $7,900, paving the way for further upside in the coming weeks.

At press time, BTC/USD was trading around $8,250, up just over 1 percent in the past 24 hours.

Commenting on the current movements, Trading Bitcoin host Tone Vays nonetheless advised caution concerning optimism:

“If we can get into an area of $8,600, it’s very possible that the price would be exhausted,” he told viewers on the latest edition of his podcast April 18.

Just weeks ago, Bitcoin was trading below $7,000 and a return to that zone could well occur in the event prices escalated too quickly towards $9,000, Vays said.

Nonetheless, Bitcoin retaking and holding $8,000 has coincided with fresh bullish remarks from multiple industry experts.

Calling time on the period of downward trends since December were venture capitalist Tim Draper and CNBC economist Brian Kelly last week, while this week a quarterly outlook from Saxobank continued the positive crypto market sentiment for 2018.

In altcoin markets meanwhile, progress has been broadly in line with Bitcoin’s behavior.

Two exceptions to the rule have come in the form of Basic Attention Token (BAT), which gained almost 50 percent on the day following a partnership announcement between the coin’s Brave platform and the Dow Jones Media Group. BAT is currently trading around $0.36, up about 22 percent on the day to press time.

The other exception is altcoin Verge (XVG), which delivered similar performance, but in the opposite direction, its value dropping 35 percent in the 24 hours after a much-hyped announcement of its new partnership with major adult entertainment website Pornhub. XVG has since seen slight gains on the day to press time, up 0.65 percent to trade around $0.07.