Bitcoin just passed $8,000!

If you thought that the price registered earlier this month, of over $6,000, was the maximum high Bitcoin can reach, you were completely wrong. On Friday morning, the cryptocurrency surged as high as $8,040, on Bitfinex, one of the biggest exchanges in the world.

According to Fortune, at a global level, the prices were slightly lower, sitting at $7,998. And even more, the price has started lowering ever since, falling to $7,829 on Bitfinex, getting close to the globally weighted average.

The price, highly influenced by the upcoming hard fork

As for the reason of this Bitcoin surge, it comes amid growing institutional interest, but the expected “hard fork” Friday, which should introduce a new cryptocurrency for owners, was also responsible.

Right now, investors and companies are continuously venturing into the world of crypto investments. Even more, payments companies, like Square, started allowing select customers to buy and sell Bitcoin just a few days ago. Also, CME said that, by the end of the year, it would offer Bitcoin futures, thus opening the coin to a host of potential institutional investors.

As for the hard fork, it’s contributing to the coin’s rise. Just before the price slid below $6,000, the people behind the SegWith2x hard fork said that they would suspend a proposal which would lead to an increase of Bitcoin blocks, from 1MB to 2MB.

When will wee see a new Coin?

On the other side, major exchanges say that they are still looking forward to seeing a small group of cryptocurrency miners to go forward with the initial SegWit2x proposal, which will end up with the creation of a new network and new cryptocurrency.

“Despite these developments, a small number of miners may attempt to go forward with a fork,” said David Farmer, Coinbase’s director of communications. He also added that the fork should happen on November 17, between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m Pacific Time.