Market Extra: Bitcoin bulls see $6,000 in sight, as digital currency jolts higher

Bitcoin extended its record rebound on Friday, with rival digital currency Ether joining in a run-up that has taken both to, or near, all-time highs since stumbling badly last month.

A single bitcoin

BTCUSD, +6.60%

 was trading around $5,600, pulling back only slightly from a record at $5,856 early in the day, according to research and data site Coindesk.com. At its current all-time high level, the cyberunit has surged nearly 90% since its Sept. 14 at $2,985.24.

Its closest rival currency, Ether tokens trading on the Ethereum blockchain, traded at $324, compared with $214 at its low last month.

Chart watchers who track bitcoin say the virtual currency’s recent uptrend, based on measures of momentum, known as relative strength index, or RSI, see a chance for the asset to top $6,000 in near-term trade.

“Should there be a break above $5855, the price would easily climb towards $6000. The hourly RSI is at 62 and is showing positive signs, which means [bitcoin per U.S. dollar] remains in the bullish zone above $5400,” writes Aayush Jindal, in on a Finance Minutes blog.

On Twitter, some market technicians saw the potential for a test of the $6,800 realm:

Market participants have at least partly attributed the rally that has seen bitcoin gain around $1,000 in value in less than 48 hours to a pair of expected splits in core bitcoin later this month and next month. The split will result in owners of bitcoin receiving equal amounts of any new versions currency resulting from changes in the underlying bitcoin blockchain software. Blockchain refers to the distributed, open-sourced ledger that underpins all digital currencies.

Market participants said it isn’t uncommon for investors to purchase core virtual currencies in the hopes of collecting the new versions of the cyber units that might occur after a split.

Here are some other reasons for the digital-currency climb.

Meanwhile, the total value of digital currencies stands at around $170 billion, near a record of $175 billion hit late August, according to CoinMarketcap.com. Bitcoin represents about 55% of that total value.

Source: CoinMarketcap.com