Bitcoin Bull Run Takes it to $18k while Altcoins like XRP Follow

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2020 is proving, at least in the world of crypto, to have become a worthy follower to the now infamous year 2017, which is the last time a bull run rally of this magnitude has taken place. As the Bitcoin price climbed all the way to $18k (where it trades above at the time of writing), analysts wondered whether a pullback was in place before tackling the all-time high near $20k. Given that the climb of $12k to $18k has gone so fast, a retraction was perhaps to be expected (but that is of course Bitcoin of the 2017 understanding, pre institutional money being poured in) but it didn’t take place.

Covid-19

The original and biggest cryptocurrency has in many ways Covid to thank for it’s remarkable 2020 climb. As worldwide Western governments needed to distribute stimulus money either to protect families from unemployment or to keep masses happy so that protests would be kept to a minimum, investors needed a hedge against inflation. As from the moment of halving in May of this year, Wall Street found one in Satoshi Nakamoto’s invention.

Not often in life do you get to look at a chart like this one.#Bitcoin to slice through highs imminently.

3rd wave up to dwarf the 2017 move and should persist for several years.

Real fundamentals driving price unlike ‘17 speccy/ico retail flow.

Big boys will buy dips now. pic.twitter.com/J8Ilvk8Vs9

— Dan Tapiero (@DTAPCAP) November 18, 2020

As worldwide media was made aware of Bitcoin’s remarkable climb, Nasdaq commentator Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, an analyst at JPMorgan, said:

The virus crisis is propagating the reassessment of bitcoin. There is a reassessment about its value here as an alternative currency, as an alternative to gold.

Already we are wondering where it will end for Bitcoin on 31 December as the clock strikes midnight (let us know in the comments below where you believe Bitcoin will finish 2020).

Altcoins

Of course, given the fact that institutional money is now pouring in, some of it also has to be distributed into other cryptocoins as well. Two cryptos in the CoinMarketCap top 10 stood out in the past week: XRP and Litecoin.

Watching a lot of the alts rise and fall with the BTC seems like a really good sign. Hoping we maintain this volatility. Makes for some fun trading and easy money. pic.twitter.com/GZcUxZE1FF

— Bitcoin Dood (@BitcoinDood) November 18, 2020

XRP moves in tandem with Bitcoin during these climbs (just as Ethereum does) and is a logical investment for wealthy institutions in the US. CEO Brad Garlinghouse is a charismatic man and a good speaker who’s marketed his cryptocoin very well. Although XRP has lost some of its shine in the past few years, if institutional money pours in here, it could very well rise up to its earlier highs.

Litecoin also has a remarkable CEO in the form of Charlie Lee, a highly respected figure in the cryptosphere. Furthermore, the news that PayPal would include Litecoin as one of the cryptocoins you could directly invest in via its site, has seen the coin skyrocket.