In a sudden burst of bulls, Bitcoin price yesterday went from below $8,100 to $8,900 on Bitstamp, seeing an increase of 10%. Trading volume also surged, recording nearly $2 billion after a long time.

Currently, BTC/USD is trading at $8,770 while $1.45 billion worth of bitcoin exchanged hands on top ten exchanges with real volume.

Altcoins meanwhile are still going strong with BSV now at 4th spot making a new all-time high at $439. With 47% gains, Dash is enjoying a bull ride along with ETC which is up 27%.

Bitcoin Cash, ETC, ZEC, BAT, are up 20% while Ethereum, ESO, BNB, TRX, XLM, NEO, IOT, ONT are recording double-digit gains as well.

Source: Coin360

The market is going insane with the greens but “I like to think of the crypto space as a special place where logic and reason are suspended,” said Mati Greenspan, founder of Quantum Economics in his daily newsletter.

A Huge Upside for BTC but not in the Near Future

Bitcoin is inching closer to $10,000 after 2019’s over 80% increment. This, however, is not a comeback but Bitcoin being Bitcoin, said Brian Kelly, founder & CEO of BKCM LLC, a digital currency investment firm.

“It does that every several years. Look at the market, it’s a very typical move for bitcoin,” said Kelly adding the world’s leading cryptocurrency is continuing the momentum from last year.

The price was actually mispriced because while the underlying fundamental, the address growth, was growing the price was declining. “That's buy signal,” explained Kelly.

But now exactly the opposite is happening, with the price going a bit ahead of address growth. According to Kelly, there’s a huge upside for Bitcoin but “maybe just not tomorrow.”

Bitcoin to the moon? The cryptocurrency is taking off again! pic.twitter.com/NlrB2BP1uT

— CNBC's Fast Money (@CNBCFastMoney) January 14, 2020

$15,000 to $16,000 a “Reasonable Target” for 2020

Bitcoin is up about 20% to date in 2020, which is the best start to a year since 2012. It all started when Iran's uncertainty drove BTC higher just like gold.

US-Iran tensions combined with the launch of CME bitcoin options, are the “strong catalysts driving an eruption in bitcoin and even adding heat to the struggling top 100 alt coins,” Jehan Chu, co-founder of Kenetic Capital, an investor in blockchain startups told CNBC. He added,

“While sentiment still drives waves of volatility, we are seeing increasing institutional volume anchoring the market.”

We also have bitcoin reward halving coming up in May 2020. But the market is divided between those who believe the event is already priced-in and those who don’t. Vijay Ayyar, head of Asia for cryptocurrency exchange Luno, said,

“I would conjecture most normal people are unaware of it, and when the price starts running, the masses will come in as we’ve seen before. This is slated to happen in May 2020. So any price increase as we’re seeing, people have an eye on May for sure.”

He added that a $15,000 to $16,000 price on bitcoin is a “reasonable target” by year-end.