Unstoppable! Bitcoin breaks through $14,000 and rises more than 20% in one day

At about 6:00 p.m. Wednesday, U.S. time, according to the U.S. trading platform GDAX, Bitcoin hit a record high of $14,250, with an increase of 20%. In the past two days, it has broken through three integer levels of $12,000, $13,000, and $14,000. In less than 24 hours, it rose by more than $2,000.

Financial blog Zerohedge believes that the funds for Bitcoin's rise mainly come from Ethereum, which is currently down about 6% and is currently trading at $430.

At about 4 p.m. U.S. time, according to the latest data from London Bitcoin trading platform CEX.IO, Bitcoin broke through the $14,000 mark, reaching a high of $14,398. In just three hours, Bitcoin rose by another $1,000. Bitcoin on the GDAX platform hit a new record high of $13,471, and the record high on the Bitstamp platform was $13,197.

According to the U.S. trading platform GDAX, after Bitcoin broke through the $12,000 mark on Tuesday night, it soared above $13,000 at around 2 p.m. U.S. time, with a daily increase of about 10%. It rose by $1,000 in less than 24 hours.

Data from another mainstream platform, Luxembourg-based Bitstamp, showed that Bitcoin rose by more than 11.5%, hitting a record high of $13,049. Trading platform CoinDesk also showed that Bitcoin broke through the psychological barrier of $13,000, reaching a high of $13,017.96.

Later, Nikkei reported that Japan’s SBI Holdings and China’s Huobi.com reached a capital alliance.

At about 1 p.m. on Wednesday, U.S. President Trump said it was time to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. He also ordered the U.S. State Department to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He said the U.S. is ready to support a two-state solution if both sides are willing.

At the beginning of this year, Bitcoin was only about $1,000, and its increase so far this year is an astonishing 1,400%.

CME announced last Friday (December 1) that it plans to launch Bitcoin futures contracts on December 18. After Cboe announced on Monday (December 4) that it will launch Bitcoin futures on December 10, it successfully surpassed CME to become the world's first exchange to launch Bitcoin futures contracts.

CNBC reported that the launch of Bitcoin futures by these two well-known exchanges seems to mark another step towards digital currency becoming a legal asset.

In addition, the Tokyo Financial Exchange, one of Japan’s leading financial exchanges, also announced that it will begin preparations for Bitcoin futures in early 2018.

Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co., has also said that once Bitcoin enters the formal financial market, it is expected to promote cryptocurrencies to an emerging asset class. Bitcoin may join the ranks of gold and become a reliable long-term tool for storing wealth.

Former Fortress hedge fund manager Michael Novogratz also said in an interview with CNBC last week that he expects the price of Bitcoin to reach $40,000 by the end of next year.

In the past week, several governments have introduced regulations and crackdowns on virtual currencies. This morning, the Indonesian central bank announced plans to introduce a ban on digital currencies. In addition, according to South Korean media reports, South Korea will also restrict bank cryptocurrency transactions next year.

However, this signal of tightening regulation failed to stop Bitcoin from rising further. Bitcoin hit the 11,000 mark on the day it broke through the 10,000 mark. Although it fell back to below 9,000 in the following days, it rebounded quickly and broke through the 12,000 US dollar mark in today's Asian session.

Bitcoin's current market value is close to $220 billion, exceeding the market value of Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase.

However, according to Reuters, customers of Bittrex, a major bitcoin exchange in Las Vegas, said they were unable to withdraw their funds, and the company did not explain why. The market once again questioned the security of digital currency transactions.