You will find more statistics at Statista
The digital currency Bitcoin has reached new highs this week. Having hit the $3,000 mark earlier this month, the cryptocurrency climbed past $4,000 for the first time on Sunday. The bitcoin price has more than quadrupled since January 1, putting even the best-performing S&P 500 stocks to shame. Bitcoin’s market capitalization has risen to more than $70 billion, cementing its position as the largest cryptocurrency ahead of Ethereum with a market cap just shy of $30 billion.
In its relatively short lifetime (bitcoin was introduced in 2009), the cryptocurrency has had its ups and downs, but what is driving this year’s exceptional rally? “Bitcoin is benefitting from geopolitical tensions – trading in Japan and Korea has increased significantly over the last few months,” Brian Kelly, head of BKCM, which runs a digital asset strategy, said in an email to CNBC. Bitcoin, like gold, is widely considered a safe-haven for investors worried about the stability of financial markets amid rising tensions between North Korea and the United States.
Eager investors should be careful however, as the cryptocurrency has proven highly volatile in the past. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the bitcoin price dropped to $1,000 by the end of the year, I wouldn’t be surprised if it climbed to $10,000 either”, financial analyst Markus Miller, warns of the currency’s unpredictability on German news channel n-tv. As our chart illustrates, the gold price is much more stable than the price of a bitcoin, making the precious metal the safer haven when in doubt.
Fuck me. I was laughing at Bitcoin when it was 40 bucks.
I received one bitcoin donation months ago. At the time it was worth $22. Today it is worth north of $80. I should have put my IRA in it. 🙂
I don’t get it Jim. The article says a bitcoin is over $4,000. Why are you saying it is only worth $80?
Bitcoin is divisible. He didn’t get “a bitcoin”… he got “a bitcoin donation”.
OK, gotcha. Does that mean I can buy bitcoin divisibly?
It would be entirely useless if people couldn’t.
Yeah, well I shoulda bought $500 bucks of microsoft stock in 1979. That’s about as much as I could afford at the time out of my profits from dealing weed as a college student.
Where can you spend a BitCoin?
I Googled “where to spend Bitcoin”. Like some fucking coffee shop in Prague. It’s a fucking joke.
Tulip Bulbs.
the end.
it’ll be different this time stucky,trust me–
people have learned from history and smarter people are in charge–
It doesn’t matter what it is, most people buy when it is hitting highs instead of when it is at the bottom.
A jump on the bandwagon sort of thing.
Did anybody hear anything about the new crypto currency called Bit-Coen?
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/08/10/bitcoen_the_cryptocurrency_for_jews/
I wonder if I should feel bad about missing out on something that I don’t have a farking clue about what it is or why?
OK, so maybe I don’t understand what bitcoin is but it seems to me to be what American Express Travelers checks were all those years ago. Let’s say that you live in China and you managed to steal $10 billion yuan. How do you get your money out of that repressive country? Well today, you buy bitcoin. You send your son to college in the US and you give him the bitcoin wallet code and he takes the money out of bitcoin and into dollars and stashes them into a criminal banking institution like, oh I don’t know, say HSBC. You are happy, your money is out of china. They are happy, they have billions of your dollars. But you lost some of your money on the way over in the form of fees so what to do. How about you buy 9 Billion of bitcoin at 1000 yuan and then you buy 1 billion of bitcoin at 4000. The number of bitcoins is capped so they can’t make more and you just bid 4000 for a billion dollars worth. Now your 9 billion is worth more than enough to cover the costs and you still make bank, no losses! Your money is out of China. Your son has a huge bank account that isn’t yours so they can’t recover it. And they can’t trace the transaction. What’s not to like.
OK, somebody did have to give you all of those dollars, but that isn’t your money is it. They are giving you their money because…well because bitcoin is now at 4000. WhoooHooo. Buy bitcoin. Your missing out.
Tulips. Yeah it’s all about tulips.
I suppose, Rob, that you are channeling the story of a future president whose casino venture was on the rocks. His monied dad dropped by to purchase a shitload of chips and left.
When folks catch on, they want in on the loophole and thus we have bitcoin or casino chips, same thing.
My sister has 3 sons. Each son, over the years, accumulated gold coins. She had them sell their gold coins and bought Litecoin.
They should have bought Bitcoin or Ethereum.
I have no idea what they should have done. I’ll be rooting for them non the less since they are my nephews. 10, 14 and 17.
What is laughable is bitcpin manipulated and has no worth.Who would pay 4k for air con?
I can walk on light, said the nut.
Could you walk on the beam from a flashlight?
Of course.
Do it then, here, walk up to the roof on this light beam.
Do you think I’m crazy? I know as soon as I am near the top, you will turn off the flashlight!
Sheep are for shearing. And these sheep are gonna get sheared.
It’s all fun and games until they turn off the lights. Which is in the works now, the bankers are demanding reporting of fund transfers from foreign banks. Freedom isn’t free unless it is approved by the US.
I read the book ‘Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds’ more than 40 years ago and I have no doubt how this “Bit Coin” craze will end up.
If you want to know just read the book.
When the lights go out……….all your money are belong to us………The usual suspects.
Think about it; you have a group of people throwing money into a pot and every one of them is thinking they’re going to walk away with more than they put in. No one is producing anything of value so where is the increase in value coming from? It’s a zero sum game; the amount that winners walk away with will be balanced out by an equal amount of loss to the losers.
It’s all based on Magical thinking.
But don’t listen to me, go ahead and jump in and get rich. I’ll just watch.
ASIG, you reminded me of Dogbert confronting the diamond miners. He asked how they could charge so much for a commodity that is so abundant. They hand him a bag of diamonds and ask him to get lost. I wonder how much Bitcoin you can get if you threaten to sound the alarm.
ASIG. Exactly
Sounds like Social Security.
Robert (QSLV)
The ol pump and dump.Goldman calls its VICTIMS Muppets-
Vietnam’s punishment for corrupt bankers: Death -We need same policy
So in fact it does turn out to be true that Bitcoin is at 4000 because the Chinese government is cracking down on ATM withdrawals by using facial recognition. They have to get their money out of the country and it doesn’t matter to them what a stinking bitcoin costs.