Bitcoin reached a new all-time high, reaching $23,500 per coin. But the cryptocurrency failed to gain a foothold at this level.

On December 17, the bitcoin rate briefly reached $23,500 per coin. But the cryptocurrency failed to hold its position. On December 18, the bitcoin price began to decline and dropped to $22,700 by the evening of December 18.

The market capitalization of the first cryptocurrency exceeded $422 billion. Thanks to the new rally, bitcoin surpassed the US bank JPMorgan Chase, Mastercard payment system, retail giant Walmart and pharmaceutical company Johnson&Johnson in terms of market capitalization. With a market cap of more than $422 billion, bitcoin is now the 12th most valuable asset by market cap, according to AssetDash.

The current crypto boom pushed demand for stablecoins, which are used by traders to take profits and exit an asset as an alternative to the US dollar. In response to this demand, the USDT stablecoin issuer, Tether, brought the volume of coins in circulation to $20 billion.

“This fantastic milestone is another confirmation for Tether maintaining its number one spot as the most liquid, stable and trusted currency!” Tether tweeted.

Optimism seems to have gripped all bitcoin investors. However, their predictions of BTC price growth differ. Quantum Economics analyst and founder Mati Greenspan believes that bitcoin's current rally to $23,000 is just the beginning. According to him, there is no need to focus on the results of growth in 2017 and be limited to them. In case of an increase in demand, new heights of BTC may await us.

“This year is probably going to end at this $22,000 to $25,000 range [for bitcoin] and next year $30,000 to $35,000 and then we will break out to these new high levels that you are talking about," Celsius Network co-founder and CEO Alexi Mashinsky told Yahoo Finance Live.

Goldman Sachs analysts believe bitcoin does not threaten gold. In their opinion, cryptocurrency can attract the attention of investors, but the precious metal will not die because of this as an investment tool.

"While there is some substitution occurring, we do not see bitcoin's rising popularity as an existential threat to gold's status as the currency of last resort."