Bitcoin in the News : 2017-04 Price

Just like last month, in Bitcoin in the News : 2017-03 Price, let's look at bitcoin price action for the month of April. The chart for the last 30 days shows a slow upward trend for the first few weeks, followed by a sharp rise near the end of the month.

Bitcoin Price Index

The main stories from Bitcoin price analysis (cointelegraph.com) for this period were:-

• 2017-04-21: Bitcoin Price Heads To Pre-ETF Highs, Exceeding $1,250 • 'Following a month of subdued value after the Winklevoss ETF rejection in March, a steady resurgence has been underway.'
• 2017-04-26: Bitcoin Price Breaks All-Time High, Hits $1,300: Potential Factors • 'Most analysts seem to believe that the recent surge in bitcoin price was caused by the SEC’s decision to re-examine the bitcoin ETF proposal of the Winklevoss twins.' [...] 'It is likely that the arbitrage in the US market caused by Bitfinex and other exchanges’ inability to process withdrawals and deposits in fiat money is causing bitcoin price to increase at a rapid rate.'
• 2017-04-29: Bitcoin Price Sets New All-Time High at $1,377: Main Factors • Ditto.

Arbitrage making the price rise -- how does that work? From the second link:-

Bitcoin price in the US, which holds 26.6 percent of the global Bitcoin exchange market share averaging at $1,315. On the other hand, Japan, the largest Bitcoin exchange market, is demonstrating an average price of $1,297. Competitors in the US Bitcoin exchange market including Bitstamp expressed their concerns over the current Bitfinex issue and its conflict with its intermediary banks.

The logic here isn't at all clear to me. Neither is the logic behind these predictions from the same source:-

• 2017-04-17: Bitcoin Price at $500,000 by 2030: African Projection • 'The advent of new services that use the digital currency for the purpose of sending money from one point to another has started eating into the roughly $4 bln per year cost that banks and other institutions make from international transfers to Africa.'
• 2017-04-27: Bitcoin Price Over $10,000 by 2021 If It Manages to Hold Market Share: Voorhees Prediction • 'The entirety of the token market, which as an asset class has surpassed $30 bln, would be worth more than $300 bln in the next four years.'

That's not bad for an asset that isn't backed by anything tangible.