Bitcoin price surges past $650 on back of Chinese mining conference

Many believe price is driven by Chinese speculators and investors returning to Bitcoin following the recent yuan devaluation.
The price of Bitcoin has risen 4% in the past 24 hours to over $650, led by Chinese exchanges on the back of a mining conference in Chengdu, which optimistically pointed to the end of the Bitcoin scaling debate.
The closing remarks from Huang shiliang, a famous bitcoin advocate in China, were essentially about galvanising the Chinese Bitcoin mining community, who own the majority of hashing power, to push for larger blocksizes sooner rather than later.
In terms of BTC/USD, it is the first time since the Bitfinex hack that Bitcoin has crossed the $650 mark. Many believe the price is also being driven by Chinese speculators and investors returning to Bitcoin following the recent yuan devaluation.
Bitcoin scaling debate
The Bitcoin scaling debate argue over on which path should be taken (and when) to increase the number of transactions the Bitcoin network can handle.

This post was published at International Business Times on October 23, 2016.