On July 20, after a month filled with wild price swings, Bitcoin once again rose above the $11,000 mark.

At the end of last month, the Bitcoin rally sent the world's leading digital currency above $14,000. But since then the currency has largely fluctuated within the $10,000-$13,000 range. On July 15, for a short time it rose above $11,000 only to fall under $10,000 the very next day.

For the past 3 days, Bitcoin has been held within the $10,000-$11,000 range, where it has consistently resisted the $11,000 mark until now.

During the past weeks, Bitcoin has been prominently in the U.S. news, and not just because of its wild price swings. On July 11, U.S. president Donald Trump tweeted his dislike of it. The president indicated that he is not fan of either Bitcoin or any of the so-called alternative digital currencies, especially Facebook's Libra. He accused them of not really being money. He further said that their value is not only very volatile but based on nothing at all.

A handful of days after the president's tweets, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee and the U.S. House Financial Services Committee held hearings relating to Libra on consecutive days. Observers of these hearings came away with the opinion that the outcomes of both hearings were that U.S. legislators held a decidedly negative opinion of Facebook's upcoming digital currency. For example, Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) said that it is difficult to trust that Facebook would protect the privacy of Libra's users after the government just levied a $5 billion fine against them because of the way they misused customer information.

Some believe that, because of the hearings, Libra's outlook currently looks quite grim. Though no one seems quite sure what this will mean for Bitcoin, if anything. Though the fact that it sharply rallied today could only be good news for its long-term outlook. Another positive sign is how the currency's market capitalization is fast approaching the $200 billion mark.