Well, well - it looks like 2018 is starting off with a bang for steem!
On January 1st, the cryptocurrency most notably associated with the social networking platform Steemit broke out above $4, a multi-year resistance level going back to steem's introduction in the Summer of 2016.
As denoted by the red arrow on the daily chart above, the breakout occurred when steem closed above $4 on January 1, 2018. This was the first daily close above $4 since July 19, 2016.
The price ascension since then to as high as $8.78 illustrates what a blue sky breakout looks like. It is indicative of the fact that steem is now trading in uncharted territory as it has broken above all previous points of resistance.
Nearly a year and a half in the making, this breakout catapulted steem to being among the Top 30 cryptocurrencies in the world, with a valuation of around $1.7B at the time of this post. It still has a long way to go before it can attain Top 10 status; the CEO and co-founder of Steemit Inc., @Ned Scott, recently tweeted that steem is deserving of such a valuation.
If you follow me on Stocktwits, I posted about the breakout live as it happened on New Years Day. I also posted about it on Twitter.
After @Dan Larimer's December 31st post calling for better governance at Steemit, I noticed a surge in steem's daily trading volume from around $6M to over $20M. Shortly thereafter, steem broke above $4 and the rest is history.
In case you didn't know this already, Dan is a co-founder of Steemit Inc but is no longer with the company. He has moved on to being the co-founder of EOS. With EOS valued at nearly $7B at the time of this post, it's evident that Dan's views still carry weight within the crypto space.
With the forthcoming launch of Smart Media Tokens (SMTs), perhaps steem is finally also catching the attention of the broader crypto community in light of the underlying potential of the blockchain itself to revolutionize online publishing.
It remains to be seen whether this bullish momentum persists, but steem's price action tells the story as it stands today and it is clear that the market is voting favorably on its future prospects.
Share your thoughts on what the rest of 2018 holds for steem in the comments below!
