By Janice Gough -

The usage of Bitcoin (typically decentralized digital money designed to be used over the internet. It is near all-time highs, with 24-hour transaction volumes hovering around levels not seen since late 2017. Just recently, it hit a high of $450,000 transactions in a day. The previous record was Dec. 13, 2017, just days before prices hit $20,000. Today the value has grown to $60,955, for which it was at $31,000 in July. ) Huge gains like this in short periods are rarely seen in the stock market. The price of Bitcoin has risen by 13.36% in the past seven days. The price increased by 1.48% in the last 24 hours. The current price is $61,899.23 per BTC. Bitcoin is 4.57%, below the all-time high of $64,863.10.

Despite the high transaction volume, fees on the Bitcoin network have been at their lowest levels since August 2017.

What are the factors driving prices higher?

I will summarize this in 2 simple words: Fear and Greed.  The U.S. Dollar is hardly worth the paper it is printed on. Super inflation is on its way.

Whereas Bitcoin technology has become more accepted thru the entire world market. It provides a new faith in the growth in our economy and in providing safety in dollar evaluations and market efficiency. If and when it becomes the currency replacing the old "greenback," the public will gain more faith in their currency. The efficiency of crypto is that it cuts out all the middlemen. The government of the Central Bank has control over it, which is why it is called DeFi currency or De Financed.

What protection does it offer? Electronic wallets allow one to spend, sell or trade our coin assets. Wallets are protected from hackers by private Key technology, which comprises 12 words in a set order. Thus, your private keys are a part of cryptography.  As they are referred to, private keys are encrypted codes, lock and unlock the assets in your wallet, and record all transactions in Smart contracts. These Smart contract recordings are permanent. I refer to anything that is "Smart" technology that is run by artificial intelligence. Thus, your private keys are a part of cryptography.   These words establish the wallet address from which assets are bought and sold. A database of transactions creates a chain of ownership and is shared by everyone in the network. When the wallet owner unlocks the wallet and transfers the coin to purchase another asset, it is recorded in the Smart contracts, which are locked in a Block of transactions recorded permanently, and become a part of the BlockChain.

The past few years, "crypto" was looked at as a currency used for Drug transporters and Illegal circumstances. Of course, these things will always exist in any market, but investors now view it as our last hope to adjust to massive inflation.

The difference in electronic money is that the coin's value can increase significantly based on those investing and purchasing the currency and what role the Crypto serves. Even coins, like Ethereum, increase value daily by the fees it collects on transactions. Crypto can also go down on news of government intervention and control. It is now one of our great hopes to offset inflation.

People are fearful about the Fed's bad decisions, which have changed the U.S. economy. For years, our government has made bad decisions and debased the dollar's value by printing us into a debt, which we will never recover from.

We are wholly dependent on the Fed and expectations on inflation and the central bank's intervention on the equity markets. The Fed calls for inflation to be transitory due to supply chain disruptions. Still, we are seeing several factors and data showing inflation could be hotter and last longer than the Fed previously expected.

Bitcoin has outperformed the broader market, as its market dominance has increased from roughly 42.5% to about 45.5% so far in October.

The price action is that Bitcoin is leading the market higher, given that it's the most established and dominant cryptocurrency. This coin, being is known as "the Father of Crypto," is driving value thru the entire coin market of over 12,000 coins.

And the market itself is still in its infancy, given the absolute supply cap of 21 million Bitcoins in existence today. Nevertheless, it is a hedge against governments and central banks' unsustainable fiscal and monetary policy, which many investors are fearful of.

It's a fully fixed supply asset, which is essentially unheard of when you consider that you can go dig up more from the ground with gold. You cannot go dig up more Bitcoins. The number of bitcoins is locked in.

To learn more about Crypto trading,  Janice Gough can be reached via phone at (760) 251-7724 or Cell (650) 200-8291 or via email at: Janice@GoughFinancialSvcs.com. We are located at 1111 Tahquitz Cyn, Palm Springs, Bldg. 120 (The LawBldg)