Bitcoin Price Skyrockets $500 in Minutes as Bakkt BTC Contracts Hit Highs

Bitcoin (BTC) surged $500 in just five minutes today after experiencing a sharp drop on Oct. 23, from $7,950 to $7,450 and sitting at the position for two consecutive days.

Cryptocurrency market daily overview. Source: Coin360

According to the data from Coin360, BTC gained $536 in minutes, skyrocketing from $7,855 to $8,391. At press time Bitcoin is trading at around $8,424, up nearly 13% over the past 24 hours.

Bitcoin 24-hour price chart. Source: Coin360

While the reason behind the recent drop is not clear, some community members attribute Bitcoin’s latest surge to 661 BTC futures contracts liquidation on the Bakkt platform, with the last recorded trading price settling at $7,890 per Bitcoin.

Twitter account Bakkt Volume Bot, which carries out live tracking on the platform, indicated the following performance:

“∙ Today's volume so far: 661 BTC

∙ Last traded price: $7,890.00

∙ Trading day progress: 38% (if this continues: 100% equals to 1740 BTC)”

The latest trade deal on Bakkt apparently marked a new all-time high in BTC futures volumes, following the previous high of 452 BTC futures contracts traded on Oct. 23.

Still other members of the community attribute today’s BTC surge to President Xi Jinping’s encouragement of blockchain development in the country.

Bitcoin pulls altcoin markets higher

Bitcoin’s rally has pulled altcoins higher, with some of the top-20 coins reporting double-digit gains on the day. In general, the top-20 cryptocurrencies are up from 0.02% to 21%.

The total market capitalization of all cryptocurrency markets is around $228,9 billion, up from $208 billion earlier in the day.