At press time, bitcoin is trading for roughly $8,800. This is a $200 jump from where it stood just 24 hours ago, and investors are receiving a glimmer of hope for the future. The price bump suggests that bitcoin’s power is continuing to grow stronger, and despite a few ups and downs this week, the currency is finding it relatively easy to recover from negative hype.
Granted bitcoin can keep up its momentum, we may witness the currency spiking into the $9,000 range again this week. The price had recently been marred by activity in both Japan (Mt. Gox) and South Korea (Upbit), but now it appears recovery is on its way, as the currency has incurred $200 to $300 spikes each day since its initial drop to $8,250 – the lowest it had been since early April.
One reason for the sudden price surge comes from an unlikely place – New York. Recently, the Big Apple has garnered a reputation for being unfriendly towards bitcoin and cryptocurrency businesses thanks to the BitLicense, which was implemented in 2015. Many digital currency companies ultimately left New York or refused to perform business in the state, saying that they were being subjected to unfair fees and taxes.
Today offers a different story. New York is now hosting a three-day event known as Coindesk’s Consensus Conference. The event is slated to bring in over 8,000 attendees, and with tickets costing as much as $2,000 each, the Conference organizers are expecting to make nearly $20 million in sales this year. The event begins today – Monday morning – and is occurring at the New York Hilton, Midtown.
“It’s a bit chaotic in here,” says Ronnie Moas, head of the independent market research firm Standpoint Research. “I think they sold too many tickets.”
The hoopla is a positive sign, to say the least. Over the last week, bitcoin has been subjected to newfound volatility, dropping from a new high of roughly $9,800 to less than $8,300 in just a matter of days. That’s a $1,500 drop in less than a week.
This, combined with New York’s relatively hostile attitude towards cryptocurrency ventures, could have easily marred the Conference’s success. Instead, the opposite result seems to have emerged. So many people are trying to get in that organizers are now offering last-minute tickets to individuals for approximately $3,000 each. It’s a hard bargain, but if you’re that passionate about crypto, maybe it’s $3,000 well spent…
Many attending reporters have claimed that it took them anywhere from an hour to an hour-and-a-half to garner their reporter badges so they could properly proceed. The line for entry spread across the hotel lobby, and extended onto a second floor by way of an elevator and stairs.
“I’ve never seen anything like this for registration,” said Consensus attendee Jeff Denton, senior director of global secure supply chain at AmerisourceBergen in Philadelphia. At that time, Denton had been waiting in line for approximately one hour.
“It’s expensive, but it’s the largest conference in the U.S., so hopefully that brings the value for the cost,” he added, stating that he was predominantly interested in learning how blockchain technology could be applied to healthcare.
