Bitcoin price touched the $5,000 mark for the first time this week, confirming Max Keiser’s prediction that it would reach that milestone this week. However, this achievement triggered a sell-off, causing the bitcoin price to pull back to its early-week levels.
After finally breaking through the $4,500 wall earlier in the week, the bitcoin price began to soar. On September 1, bitcoin flew past $4,800, and by the morning of September 2, it appeared poised to challenge the $5,000 mark.
And that it did. Around 1:00 UTC, the bitcoin price leaped over $4,900 and continued to rise. At 2:00 UTC, bitcoin touched $5,000 on several exchanges–including OKCoin–although its CoinMarketCap average topped out at $4,975.
BTC Price Chart from Bitstamp
However, once it touched that mark traders initiated a massive sell-off. Within a couple hours, the bitcoin price has plunged to about $4,600 on Bitstamp. The movement was even more drastic on Bitfinex, where it dropped as low as $4,550.
Over the next few days, we will get a clearer picture of whether this sell-off is a blip on the trajectory of the bitcoin price or the beginning of a price correction. Goldman Sachs’ chief technical analyst Sheba Jafari had recently forecasted that bitcoin would edge past $4,800 and then crash to $2,200. Jafari’s analysis relies on Elliot wave theory, and other analysts believe bitcoin has a more bullish short-term future.
Ronnie Moas of Standpoint Research recently raised his mid-2018 price target to $7,500, and he stated that he anticipates that bitcoin will reach $20,000 by 2020. Last night, Max Keiser raised his interim price target to $10,000.
No matter what route the bitcoin price takes in the coming days, touching $5,000 is a major achievement. And as Keiser alluded to in the above tweet, investors are increasingly turning to cryptocurrency as a safe haven for their assets.
At the time of writing, the bitcoin price was trading at an average of $4,632, which represents a 24-hour decline of 4% but a 7-day rise of 7%. Bitcoin’s market cap, which briefly surpassed $82 billion last night, is now $76.6 billion.