Bitcoin has just enjoyed an explosive price spike that has left the most seasoned observers scratching their heads.
Depending on what exchange you were looking at, the price had at one stage risen as much as 20% within the space of an hour to hit US$5,000.
Prices that high haven’t been seen since November and the spike brings to an end a three-month period of uncharacteristically low volatility for the digital currency.
On Twitter, there are complaints the Binance website has slowed down by the sudden demand to buy.
@cz_binance Binance still can't handle massive loads, just today when BTC is up $500, website has become slow.. please ask the team to investigate.
— Jeffrey Rufino (@jeffreyrufino) April 2, 2019
Prominent Bitcoin expert Mark Jeffrey has tweeted “whoa I assume this isn’t April fools?”
“Everytime I hit reload, BTC goes up $100. This is insane!”
Whoa! I assume this isn't April Fools? 🙂 Everytime I hit reload, BTC goes up $100. This is insane! pic.twitter.com/R71FnamnVI
— Mark Jeffrey ⚡️???? (@markjeffrey) April 2, 2019
There is speculation short positions are being very quickly liquidated, fuelling the rapid rise in the Bitcoin price.
Bitcoin has increased 14.57% in the last 30 minutes.
What do you think is causing this run? pic.twitter.com/KggLTz1qKy
— CoinSpot (@coinspotau) April 2, 2019
The CryptoBull has tweeted, tongue-in-cheek, “what if it never stops.”
what if it never stops??
— Crypto₿ull (@CryptoBull) April 2, 2019