Bitcoin Recaptures $55,000 For First Time Since May

Bitcoin hit $55,000 for the first time since Elon Musk's decision in May to stop allowing Tesla purchases in Bitcoin.

By Stephen Graves

Bitcoin has hit $55,000 for the first time since mid-May, as the "Uptober" price boom continues. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap peaked at $55,530 on price index CoinGecko on Wednesday morning before falling back to its current price of just under $54,000.

It continues a run of upward momentum that saw Bitcoin's price cross $50,000 just yesterday. The top cryptocurrency last saw levels of $55,000 on May 12 before it crashed after a tweet by Elon Musk announcing that his EV company Tesla had stopped accepting Bitcoin for purchases.

That news sent Bitcoin into a downward spiral that was exacerbated by China's crackdown on Bitcoin mining the following month, with the cryptocurrency bottoming out at under $30,000 in mid-June.

What's driving Bitcoin's upward momentum?

In recent days, Bitcoin's price has recovered following a comment by Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell that the U.S. has "no intention" of following China in banning cryptocurrencies.

But even before that, Bitcoin's price had shown signs of shrugging off its summer doldrums.

A September announcement by the Chinese government reiterating that crypto-related business activities are "illegal" had only a short-term impact on the price of Bitcoin. With Chinese miners busily relocating their operations overseas, and new mining operations springing up in the U.S. and elsewhere, mining revenue reached $40 million per day in early October.

As crypto privacy advocate Edward Snowden framed it, China's latest Bitcoin ban announcement "just made Bitcoin stronger."