CNBC analysts including Brian Kelly, Kelly Evans, David Faber and Sara Eisen have analyzed the recent price surge of Bitcoin in their TV presentations. They told hundreds of thousands of real-time viewers that factors of the growth have seen an increase in demand, currency devaluation in China & India, and increasing capital controls.

Earlier this week, when the value of Bitcoin began to increase rapidly after breaking multi-month highs, investors and experts including Barry Silbert indirectly called out mainstream media outlets as well as analysts that failed to discuss the rising trend of Bitcoin value.

However, when Bitcoin passed the $900 margin and reached its all-time high market cap of $14 bln, mainstream media outlets including Business Insider, Bloomberg and Fortune provided extensive coverage on the digital currency, describing potential factors behind its price surge.

While most mainstream outlets failed to note some of the specific factors that led to the price surge of Bitcoin, analysts at CNBC explicitly outlined three major factors which contributed to the increasing Bitcoin price. These three were:

  • Increase in demand, decrease in supply
  • Devaluation of yuan & rupee, and increasing capital controls
  • Less than 5 mln Bitcoin left, spurring panic buyers

Brian Kelly stated:

“Bitcoin over the last week has surpassed $13 bln in market cap, that is more than US steel and that is bigger than Twitter. There are a couple fundamental things going on: first thing is just classic supply and demand. So we have demand coming from China and India. People are using Bitcoin as digital gold and store of value.”

Kelly and other analysts also emphasized that countries like India which suffer from extreme currency controls and restrictions have no other assets to rely on but Bitcoin, mostly because other safe haven assets like gold are being confiscated.

Thus, with demand coming from China, India and other countries with strict capital controls, the price of Bitcoin continues to increase.

Kelly said:

“In India, a month ago, in 20 minutes, 86 percent of the cash in the country is no longer valid. So they essentially demonetized the country. People then look for an alternative currency that is outside of the financial system. Bitcoin got the demand from that.”