The price of bitcoin overcame $17,000. The cryptocurrency rose by 40% in a month.

The bitcoin rate renewed its multi-month high. On November 17, the cryptocurrency exceeded $17,000. This is the highest level bitcoin demonstrates since December 2017. Then, bitcoin set an all-time high, reaching $20,000 and after that falling to $3400 by 2019.

Bitcoin has seen explosive growth since mid-October 2020. Over the month, the cryptocurrency rose in price by approximately 40%, from $11,400 to $17,000. The bitcoin capitalization exceeded $314 billion, with the dominance index standing at 65.2%. Following bitcoin, the entire cryptocurrency market entered the green zone. Ethereum added 4% over the week, rising in price to $466. Litecoin gained 26% in seven days, reaching $73.

Amid the growing bitcoin rate, the cryptocurrency exchanges enjoy increased trading activity. Bitcoin's daily trading volume reached $34 billion. Stablecoin USDT remains the most popular digital asset in terms of daily trading volume. USDT is used on most crypto exchanges as an analogue of the US dollar.

Bitcoin's growth was expected and hardly came as a surprise to market participants. “The May halving, the tense relations between the US and China, the general uncertainty in the global market due to the pandemic and the slowdown in economic development, all these factors back in the spring gave clear signals that bitcoin has prerequisites for significant growth. But with cryptocurrencies, you cannot be sure of anything, as, indeed, with other high-risk assets. Therefore, forecasts of how severe this growth are ranged from just above $10,000 to $100,000. I will make a more conservative forecast: by the end of 2020, bitcoin is unlikely to update its historical maximum, but will confidently gain a foothold above $15,000,” suggests Andrey Amris, ambassador of the UMI blockchain ecosystem.

Bitcoin could reach $318,000 by the end of 2021, suggested Tom Fitzpatrick, head of Citibank Group's product division at Citifxtechnicals. In his report titled Bitcoin: 21st Century Gold, Fitzpatrick writes that the current trend of gold price is similar to that of 1970s. Before the structural changes in the world monetary policy in the early 1970s, gold traded between $20 and $35 for years. But after those changes, gold rose sharply. Currently, the precious metal is trading at just under $1,900 per ounce. Fitzpatrick argues that bitcoin, born after the 2008-2009 Great Financial Crisis, is bound to see similar growth.

“Gold has restrictions such as storage, non-portable, and could possibly be even called ‘yesterday’s news’ in terms of a financial hedge. Bitcoin is the new gold,” Fitzpatrick's report reads.