The Worst Week For Bitcoin Since 2013

The last month for Bitcoin has shown just how volatile the popular cryptocurrency can be. Despite having is biggest price surge just a few weeks ago, it has now booked its worst week since 2013. The good news is though that it is recouping some its losses. The popular cryptocurrency has risen thirteen percent, recovering about half of the losses that it sustained last week. This is because the investors who missed out on earlier rallies are buying the biggest and best known virtual currency. Many professional investors and analysts believed that the decline in price last week was just a natural correction, after the value had absolutely soared, although there have been a lot of warnings from market regulators and central banks that this might not be the case. On Friday, Bitcoin’s value fell nearly thirty percent, to $11,159.93 USD, but on Tuesday, it was back up thirteen percent to $15,630.00USD in light trading. This was reflected on the Bitstamp exchange, which is Luxembourg based. When you look back over the year, you can see that the digital currency has actually risen around twenty fold since the start of the year, going from less than $1,000USD to $19,666USD on 17th December. The price even reached over $20,000USD on other exchanges. It should be noted that critics have been quick to identify and point out Bitcoin’s design flaws and different hacks of digital ‘wallets’ in which Bitcoins are kept as an alternative to traditional currencies. The latest to voice concern has been Shmuel Hauser, who is the chairman of the Israel Securities Authority, saying that he will propose a regulation to ban companies based on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies from trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. It doesn’t stop there though, and last week Singapore’s Central Bank issued a warning against an investment in cryptocurrencies, saying that it considers the recent surge in price to be driven by speculation and that the risk of a sharp fall in prices is very high. Bitcoin is not the only coin to recover from a recent fall in price. Ethereum, which is the second biggest cryptocurrency by market size has also recovered, as is now at $771USD, which is up from Sunday’s low of $689USD. It still has a long way to go before it hits its high of around $900USD, which it reached just last week. Image Source: Flickr Sponsored by