Bitcoin exchange rate hits record for 2020 due to missile strike on Iraq

On January 8, the Bitcoin cryptocurrency rate increased from $8080up to $8400 in 40 minutes and reached the maximum for 2020 – $8438. According to Coindesk journalists, the rise in price of the asset was due to the worsening political situation in the Middle East.

On January 7, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched a missile attack on the American military base of Ain al-Asad, located in western Iraq.

IRGC members said the attack is a stockretaliation for the assassination of General Kassem Suleimani by order of Donald Trump. Joshua Green, head of Digital Asset Capital Management, a trading company, said investors are concerned about the US conflict with Iran and therefore are translating their savings into virtual currency.

Over the past 24 hours, the Dow Industrial AverageJones fell 0.42% and the S&P 500 fell 0.28%. However, the price of oil increased by 4.3%, and gold rose by 2.19%. According to Green, financiers are afraid of a fall in the stock price of American enterprises and are investing in less risky assets: BTC, oil and gold. In this regard, the NASDAQ Composite stock index lost 2.89 points (0.03%).

From April 1 to January 8, Bitcoin is significantlystrengthened its position in the cryptocurrency market. The coin accounts for 67.98% of the total level of capitalization of digital assets. In April, this figure was only 50%. It is also worth noting that BTC overtook all the top virtual currencies in terms of value growth. The coin exchange rate increased by 5.03%, Litecoin (3.92%) is on the second line, EOS (2.30%) closes the top three. Ethereum went up only 0.07%, while XRP and Tether fell 1.69% and 0.15%, respectively.