Dash reaches the fabled $600 mark - is $1000 on the horizon?

The crypto currency Dash has reached unheard of levels in the last few days having even touched the USD 500 mark on some exchanges, an increase of almost 150% over the past month. In fact on November 7th, Dash was trading at around $250 and if it went up to $600 just a couple of days ago, this means that the increase was over 200%. A sensational rise for those who invested a few thousand dollars in this crypto currency. Analysts are also saying that Dash should easily touch the $800-1000 mark within a few weeks. Crypto market on the rise: While Bitcoin is holding above the $8,000 mark, other cryptocurrencies were also showing gains. All top 10 cryptocurrencies were seen higher this morning, led by Dash, which rose 13% since yesterday. After reaching a new record above $500 on Sunday, the sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization fell back to near $350 today before regaining poise above the $400 mark. As of writing, the dash-U.S. dollar (DASH/USD) exchange rate is $403. As per CoinMarketCap, the cryptocurrency is up 4.58 percent over the last 24 hours, and 48 percent in the last week. The record rally seen over the weekend is reportedly due to the flow of money out of bitcoin and into alternative cryptocurrencies triggered by last week's suspension of the Segwit2x hard fork. Following the last-minute move to halt a controversial bitcoin upgrade, the markets saw a broad rally in the tokens of competing blockchains such as dash, bitcoin cash and others. Also possibly driving price gains, the dash core team has announced the latest release of its software, an update that would bring a 2 MB block size and lower and transaction fees. The move may further strengthen the appeal of dash as a payment network, especially among those who believe that modifications to its blockchain will ultimately boost performance. Indeed, price chart analysis suggests the base has shifted higher to around $380 levels and that markets could revisit record highs sooner rather than later. Prices spiked after spending a better part of the last month defending the support level of $250. The 5-day MA and 10-day MA signal a strong bullish bias (slope upwards), thus dips are likely to be short-lived. The rising trendline (red) is seen offering support around $325 levels and the descending trendline is likely to act as a support around $306 levels. Yesterday's close was above the critical resistance of $414. Thus, the stars seem nicely aligned in favor of the bulls. However, the relative strength index is overbought. Furthermore, the 1-hour chart below does show scope for a pullback to $350 levels. Bearish price RSI divergence led to a strong pullback. The RSI favors further losses. However, the 50-MA and 100-MA are sloping upwards, so any dips to $350 levels are likely to be short-lived. A potential technical correction $350 cannot be ruled out but could be quickly reversed. Given the upward sloping nature of the key moving averages, the base appears to have shifted higher to around $380 levels. A nice consolidation around $380-$400 could yield a fresh rally to record highs above $500. It doesn't happen all that often that most top 10 cryptocurrencies are in the green at the same time. Especially with the Bitcoin price seemingly preparing for another leg up, interesting things are bound to happen. The Dash uptrend is still going strong after surpassing US$500 last night. Right now, it seems we may see the Dash price go all the way to US$600 in the coming hours, although maintaining the momentum becomes more difficult with every dollar gained.

It has been a remarkable year for most cryptocurrencies, including Dash. Although Bitcoin has gotten most of the attention when it comes to price gains, one shouldn't overlook the gains in altcoins either. Looking back at the Dash price of one year ago, its value was well below the US$10 mark. People who stocked up on Dash at that time and are still holding today have seen a 6,000% increase in the value of their portfolios. That is quite remarkable, and it makes Bitcoin's price gains pale in comparison. While this growth is nothing short of incredible, it remains a bit unclear why the Dash price has gone up in such spectacular fashion. Granted, there have been some technical updates and a strong marketing push across Venezuela this year. Whether or not that alone warrants such a strong uptrend remains anybody's guess right now. Most of Dash's value is derived from speculation, but that applies to virtually every other cryptocurrency or digital asset in existence today. Despite facing a struggle when it came to surpassing US$400 permanently, the Dash price has ultimately proven itself and is continuing its push without too many problems. More specifically, one Dash was worth about half of what it is today just two months ago. It is evident the Bitcoin price surge has allowed most altcoins to thrive as well, although it is certainly possible we now have even more cryptocurrency speculators actively diversifying their portfolios. Where all of this will lead us in the coming years remains to be determined.