Bitcoin has become the best investment option, outperforming fiat currency and gold

This year, Bitcoin price performance has once again outperformed all of the world’s reserve and fiat currencies. Bitcoin’s price growth has been 30% higher than the U.S. dollar, and it has also outperformed the Mexican peso, silver, gold, and the Russian ruble to become the best performing currency so far (from the beginning of 2017 to date).

Fiat, Gold and Silver Are Falling Behind

The table provided by Bitcoin data analyst SG Kinsmann shows that the price of Bitcoin has significantly exceeded other currencies and safe-haven assets such as gold and silver. As the third and fourth ranked currencies and assets, the Mexican peso and silver have increased by less than 12% compared with the US dollar.

The Altcoin Fairy Tale

2017 has been a successful year for Bitcoin investors and altcoin traders so far. Some of the top altcoins or crypto assets have seen strong gains, with Ethereum reaching a market cap of $5 billion in early April.

Back in early January, the market value of ETH was only $1 billion. In less than 4 months, the price of ETH's token Ether has increased fivefold.

The development of ETH is attributed to the establishment of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), and more and more large enterprises, organizations and companies have joined its development community.

Bitcoin Trends

However, the Bitcoin market has undergone a number of major changes this year.

First, the governments of the Philippines and Japan legalized Bitcoin and related businesses. The Indian government announced the introduction of a regulatory framework for Bitcoin in May. Large Japanese chain giants including Bic Camera, which have a significant impact on the domestic technology and consumer markets, have begun accepting Bitcoin payments.

The main factor driving the recent rise in Bitcoin prices is the existing solution to the network's expansion problem. The 1MB block limit of the Bitcoin network has caused congestion in the blockchain, a sharp increase in transaction fees, and an increase in confirmation time.

If the Bitcoin scaling problem can be solved this year - the current innovative solutions include Bitcoin Core's Segregated Witness (SegWit), the Purse team's Extension Blocks, etc., then the Bitcoin price is likely to rise sharply.

On April 26, the price of Bitcoin officially broke through $1,300, breaking the previous record of $1,277. However, most analysts believe that the price of Bitcoin cannot rise significantly at present because well-known Bitcoin exchanges such as Bitfinex and OKCoin have problems with their banking business.

If the conflicts between banks and Bitcoin exchanges can be resolved, the Bitcoin scaling problem no longer exists, and the popularity trend in Japan, India and the Philippines continues, the Bitcoin price is likely to rise significantly in the long term.