Bitcoin Crosses $34k On Its 12th Genesis Block Day

Bitcoin (BTC) price reached another all-time high — $34,000 in the early hours of Sunday (EST), marking the cryptocurrency network's 12th anniversary, known as Genesis Day.

What Happened: On Jan. 9, 2009, the first bitcoin block, called block number 0, was mined by Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin.

The crypto community celebrates the leading digital currency birthday twice a year — on Jan. 3 and also on Oct. 31, the anniversary of the Bitcoin white paper published by Satoshi in 2008.

Jan. 3 is also known as the Proof of Keys celebration, an event suggested by long-time bitcoiner Trace Mayer. 

The motto behind the celebration is “Not your keys; not your Bitcoin,” and the proper way to celebrate it is to “test trust” by withdrawing all bitcoins to wallets users control "that perform network consensus and use best practices,” the Proof of Keys celebration site suggests. The idea is to demonstrate the robustness of the Bitcoin system.

Why It Matters: The price of Bitcoin has had a bull run, reaching new highs throughout December and breaking the $20,000 mark on Dec. 16. It soared past $30,000 to briefly touch $33,000 around midday EST yesterday.

It then fell to $30,500 levels for a while, according to TradingView data. BTC was trading at $33,477.93 late in the morning Sunday.

What’s Next: Traders and analysts have been optimistic about the future of the BItcoin price, with some saying it “should be worth about $400,000.”

Analyst Jim Bianco compared the rally to Tesla Inc TSLA stock performance, saying, “Bitcoin makes TSLA look like it is standing still.”