Bitcoin Price Breaks $4,600 as Post-China Recovery Accelerates and SegWit2x Doubts Grow

On October 8, 2017, Bitcoin surged past $4,600, marking a dramatic recovery from the China-induced crash that had sent prices tumbling below $3,000 just weeks earlier. The cryptocurrency was trading at $4,610.48 according to CoinMarketCap data, with a total market capitalization of approximately $76.6 billion — signaling that the market had not only absorbed the shock of China’s regulatory crackdown but was accelerating toward new all-time highs.

TL;DR

• Bitcoin reached $4,610 on October 8, 2017, up 5.69% on the day
• The price recovery from China’s September ban was faster than analysts expected
• SegWit2x hard fork uncertainty failed to dampen bullish momentum
• Ethereum held steady at $308.61, XRP surged 12.3%
• BANKEX launched its public token presale, raising $8 million in private sales

A Stunning Recovery From September’s China Shock

The trajectory of Bitcoin in early October 2017 told a remarkable story of resilience. When China’s central bank declared initial coin offerings illegal on September 4, 2017, and subsequently moved to shut down domestic cryptocurrency exchanges, Bitcoin’s price plummeted from approximately $4,584 to as low as $2,975 — a decline of more than 35%. Many analysts at the time predicted a prolonged bear market.

Yet by October 8, Bitcoin had not only recovered all of its losses but was pushing decisively higher. The price of $4,610.48 represented a full recovery and then some. The speed of the rebound caught many market observers off guard. Bitcoin had demonstrated an ability to decouple from Chinese regulatory risk, as trading volumes shifted to Japan, South Korea, and the United States.

According to Kraken’s daily market report for October 8, 2017, the exchange recorded $88.4 million in total trading volume across all markets. Bitcoin alone accounted for $41.8 million of that volume, with a 5.69% daily gain pushing the price to $4,584 on the platform. The sustained buying pressure suggested strong institutional and retail demand from outside China.

SegWit2x: The Fork That Divided The Community

Beneath the bullish price action, a fierce debate was raging within the Bitcoin community. The SegWit2x hard fork, scheduled for November 2017, proposed doubling Bitcoin’s block size from 1MB to 2MB. The proposal originated from the New York Agreement, a compromise reached in May 2017 between major Bitcoin businesses and mining pools.

However, by October, support for SegWit2x was fracturing. Major exchanges began taking decisive positions. Bitfinex, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, announced that it would list the SegWit2x fork as “B2X” while reserving “BTC” for the legacy Bitcoin chain — even if the SegWit2x chain accumulated more hashing power. Coinbase adopted a similar stance.

This was a critical development. By refusing to automatically rebrand the SegWit2x chain as Bitcoin, these exchanges effectively signaled that market consensus, not hashing power alone, would determine which chain deserved the Bitcoin name. The decision weakened the bargaining position of SegWit2x supporters and emboldened those who believed the fork would ultimately fail.

Bitcoin analyst Tuur Demeester captured the market sentiment, noting that if the SegWit2x hard fork turned out to be a “nothingburger,” it could provide tailwinds for a rally toward $5,000. The market appeared to agree — between October 7 and October 10, Bitcoin surged from $4,300 to nearly $4,893, a $593 increase in just three days.

Ethereum and the Altcoin Market

Ethereum held relatively steady on October 8, trading at $308.61 with a modest 0.44% gain and a market capitalization of approximately $29.3 billion. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap was finding its footing after its own September volatility. ETH trading volume on Kraken reached $18.5 million, making it the second most-traded asset on the platform.

The altcoin market showed more varied performance. XRP (Ripple) was the standout performer among major cryptocurrencies, surging 12.3% to $0.2632 with $12.2 million in Kraken trading volume. Litecoin gained 3.97% to reach $53.92, while Dogecoin — still largely viewed as a novelty at this point — posted a 5.89% gain to $0.0011.

Bitcoin Cash, which had forked from Bitcoin in August 2017, was one of the few major cryptocurrencies in the red, declining 2.03% to $348.91. The BCH price action reflected the broader market’s renewed focus on the original Bitcoin chain amid the SegWit2x debate.

BANKEX Launches Public Token Presale

October 8 also marked the launch of BANKEX’s public token presale. The blockchain-based Bank-as-a-Service platform had already raised $8 million in its private sale period and was targeting between 65,000 and 130,000 ETH in its public fundraising round. BANKEX, listed as one of the top-50 fintech companies by Financial IT’s Pathfinder Ranking, was building a Proof-of-Asset Protocol to tokenize real-world assets.

The project had attracted notable partnerships, including Microsoft, the Moscow Exchange, and Soramitsu — a Japanese blockchain company that contributed to the Hyperledger project. The BANKEX presale was indicative of the broader ICO boom that was sweeping through the cryptocurrency space in late 2017, even as regulators in China and South Korea moved to ban token sales.

The Road to $5,000 and Beyond

The momentum building on October 8, 2017, would prove to be just the beginning of an extraordinary rally. Bitcoin was approaching its pre-China-ban all-time high, and the growing consensus that SegWit2x would fail was removing a major overhang from the market. Japanese and South Korean exchanges were seeing record volumes, and institutional interest in Bitcoin was beginning to intensify.

The total cryptocurrency market capitalization was climbing steadily, with Bitcoin dominance remaining strong above 50%. The stage was being set for what would become one of the most dramatic bull runs in financial market history — a run that would take Bitcoin from $4,600 in early October to nearly $20,000 by mid-December 2017.

Why This Matters

October 8, 2017 stands as a turning point in Bitcoin’s history. It was the day the market definitively proved that China’s regulatory crackdown could not kill Bitcoin. It was the day exchanges drew a line in the sand on SegWit2x, protecting the integrity of the Bitcoin brand. And it was the day the foundation was laid for the historic rally that would captivate the world’s attention just two months later. For anyone seeking to understand how Bitcoin evolved from a niche experiment into a global financial phenomenon, the events of this date provide essential context.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments carry significant risk. Always conduct your own research before making investment decisions.