Bitcoin (BTC) has experienced a massive price surge that seen the top-ranked cryptocurrency move up to the $4,500 price mark. This increase puts BTC at its highest price level for 2019 amid claims that the 15-month bear market is well and truly over.
Bitcoin Gains 12 Percent in Less than an Hour
Within the space of less than an hour, a surge in BTC demand pushed the price up by more than 12 percent on the hourly chart. On some exchanges, Bitcoin rose from $4,190 to about $4,700.
Tradingview user “MrRenev” says this price breakout marks the end of the bear market that has lasted for more than 15 months. According to MrRenev’s analysis, BTC has broken the bear market resistance, as well as the 150 daily MA.
This price surge follows six weeks of consecutive gains for the top-ranked cryptocurrency. Analysts at Bloomberg predicted that the run could go on for a significant amount of time.
Given the uncoupled nature of the cryptocurrency markets, other tokens are also in the green with the total market capitalization rising to $157 billion. Among the top-ten altcoins, Litecoin has seen the greatest surge, rising by more than eight percent over the last 24 hours.
Price Manipulation?
However, the sharp rise in the BTC price over a short space of time has rekindled the debate about price manipulation. Bitcoin experienced a huge green candle that saw the price rise by six percent in less than 15 minutes.
A recent report from Bitwise Asset Management revealed that 95 percent of BTC trading volume was due to wash trading. At the time, many analysts agreed that while wash trading was a concern, it didn’t have a significant impact on prices.
The reason for this conclusion comes from the fact that the majority of the market liquidity comes from ten crypto exchange platforms, out of which nine are regulated. Wash trading is illegal on regulated platforms.