On 4 November at 9:50 GMT, according to the Coindesk Price Index, bitcoin reached a new landmark – 450 dollars for the unit. It is the all-time high since September 2014. At the press time, it already reached 465 dollars.

The upward trend that started on 24 October seems unstoppable. In less than two weeks the price of the most famous cryptocurrency grew from $280 to $465 and keeps growing. The greatest leap, from $350 to $465, was made in the last two days.

Since January 2015 the bitcoin price was most of the time staying below $300. It seemed that the notorious bitcoin volatility was over and the price range was fixed. However, the recent events show it was far from the truth.

The price growth may be partly caused by the growing insecurity of Chinese market, pushing people to invest in bitcoin, or by Chinese anti-corruption campaign. Another reason may be the recent decision of the EU court to make bitcoin VAT-free. However, it seems that current bitcoin price spike came unexpected for most observers, if not all of them.

The only people who foresaw this growth were bitcoin enthusiasts all over the world. In July 2015, when the cryptocurrency price seemed stabilised, a survey was conducted by Coindesk on possible dynamics of bitcoin price by the end of the year. 77% respondents were sure bitcoin would grow. While most (54%) expressed moderate optimism, believing that by the end of the year the price of one bitcoin will be between $300 and $500, another 18% believed that one bitcoin will cost between $500 and $1,000. About 5% put the future price in the range of $1,000-3,000 and 1% was certain that the price of bitcoin would reach $9,000-11,000.

In two months' time we shall see who was right.

Alexey Tereshchenko