According to data from CryptoCompare, around 11:50 (UTC) on Monday (January 27), Bitcoin pushed its way past the $8,700 mark for the first time since January 19 as you can see in the two-week BTC-USD price chart shown below:
At press time (13:00 UTC on January 27), Bitcoin is trading around $8,723, up 3.23% in the past 24-hour period:
Today’s Bitcoin price surge comes despite the mayhem in mainland China caused by the recent outbreak of Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), a new strain of coronavirus. The following tweet from Dovey Wan, a Founding Partner of blockchain-focused venture investment firm Primitive Ventures, gives an idea of the seriousness of the situation in China:
Latest China 2019-nCov update
Shanghai just makes it official to extend the CNY break for another 10 days. Other mega cities will follow too
Basically the GDP machine will be shut down for more than half a month due to the virus 🦠 pic.twitter.com/lufFuMLmwC
— Dovey 以德服人 Wan 🗝 🦖 (@DoveyWan) January 27, 2020
Jason Wu, the CEO and founder of non-custodial crypto lender DeFiner, told Coindesk:
We planned a 10-city tour to talk with potential clients in China. Nobody wants to attend any crypto-related conferences or any meetings at all because of the virus, we have to rearrange everything.
Prominent Macroeconomist and crypto analyst/trader Alex Krüger says that the coronavirus outbreak has already hurt stock prices of Chinese companies:
Chinese stocks now down a bloody 6% since last night. All coronavirus driven. pic.twitter.com/lncTyMYPMr
— Alex Krüger (@krugermacro) January 27, 2020
However, Mati Greenspan, Founder of FinTech and crypto consultancy Quantum Economics, says that there is no need for investors to panic just yet (based on historical data showing how previous world epidemics affected global stock market performance):
History shows us that diseases are bullish.#DontPanic #StockMarket #coronarvirus pic.twitter.com/ZapYQnbzNB
— Mati Greenspan [tweets are not trading advice] (@MatiGreenspan) January 27, 2020
Popular crypto analyst and trader Josh Rager, who is also a Co-Founder of online crypto learning platform Blockroots, as well as an advisor to several blockchain startups, tweeted earlier today that he likes the nice start to the week and is feeling bullish about the fact that Bitcoin has been trading above $8,000 for the past three weeks (i.e. since January 7):
$BTC – nice start to open the week
I'll continue to accumulate sats via trading at these ranges and will buy spot $7ks or below
The longer we range above $8k, the more bullish, imo
Also accumulating a few specific altcoins at these levels for longer term holds pic.twitter.com/CG58LgLX7c
— Josh Rager 📈 (@Josh_Rager) January 27, 2020
Featured Image by “travelphotographer” via Pixabay.com
