It seems as if nothing can stop bitcoin from going higher. The cryptocurrency is up by 7%, or $157, on Wednesday at $2,416 a coin. It has gained in 26 of the past 29 sessions and has more than doubled in value over that time.
Wednesday’s gain comes after China was downgraded at Moody’s and a bitcoin scaling agreement was reached by the Digital Currency Group, representing 56 companies in 21 countries, at the Consensus 2017 conference in New York. The agreement states:
“We agree to immediately support the following parallel upgrades to the bitcoin protocol, which will be deployed simultaneously and based on the original Segwit2Mb proposal:
- “Activate Segregated Witness at an 80% threshold, signaling at bit 4 “Activate a 2 MB hard fork within six months”
The announcement is the latest bit of good news for the cryptocurrency. At the beginning of April, Japan announced bitcoin had become a legal payment method in the country. Additionally, Ulmart, Russia’s largest online retailer, said it would begin accepting bitcoin even though Russia had said it wouldn’t explore the cryptocurrency until 2018.
The gains also seem to be boosted by speculation the US Securities and Exchange Commission could overturn its ruling on the Winklevoss twins’ bitcoin exchange-traded fund. The SEC was accepting public comment on its decision until May 15, but it hasn’t announced whether it will overturn its rejection of the ETF.
Bitcoin has gained 154% this year. Except for 2014, it has been the top-performing currency every year since 2010.