It certainly has been a positive end to the week for the bitcoin (BTC) price and cryptocurrency markets in general.
At the time of writing the bitcoin price is up almost 7% since this time yesterday and has broken through the US$11,000 mark again.
Each token is now worth US$11,156 according to Coin Market Cap, giving the world's largest cryptocurrency a market capitalisation of US$188.5 billion (A$243 billion).
To put that into context, that's more than the combined value of Australia's two largest banks – Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) and Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC).
Why is bitcoin surging higher?
The cryptocurrency market had been a bit wobbly over the last couple of days after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced plans to investigate the initial coin offering (ICO) market amid concerns that investors are being scammed.
But the market clearly has moved on from that now judging by this strong gain. While there is no definitive news that is known to have caused the move higher, it is likely to be down to the volatility being seen in share markets across the world.
The U.S. market sank overnight following Trump's comments on steel and aluminium import tariffs, leading investors to head to safe haven assets. Although bitcoin is arguably one of the riskiest assets out there, it has quickly become almost as popular as gold as a place to put money when markets are tumbling.
It wasn't just U.S. markets that tumbled. Trump's words have many concerned that a global trade war might ensue, leading to heightened volatility in Asian markets. The Nikkei 225 is off 2.5%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng is down 1.5%, and Korea's KOSPI is 1.2% lower at the time of writing.
I suspect this has led to strong demand for bitcoin and its spin-off Bitcoin Cash (BCH) in the Asian region. At the time of writing Bitcoin Cash is up 6.3% to US$1,288 per token.
If President Trump doesn't back down, I think bitcoin could be free to climb higher this weekend. Crypto traders will no doubt be hoping that is the case.
