The value of bitcoin has fallen significantly, after a brief period of relative stability.
The cryptocurrency, which is attracting a huge amount of mainstream attention, hit a new record high when it passed the $19,850 mark on Sunday afternoon, but slipped by around $1,300 in a matter of hours, before slowly recovering. However, it has tumbled again.
It’s worth $16,725 as of Thursday morning UK time, according to the Coinbase exchange.
Though its value is still up more than 100 per cent over last month and more than 1,900 per cent over the last year, it’s fluctuating unpredictably.
The cryptocurrency’s value fell dramatically in the early hours of Wednesday morning, hitting a low of $15,005 after dropping by almost $2,000 in just an hour. It has been up and down ever since.
Bitcoin is notoriously volatile, and its value is expected to continue to shift wildly.
Those fluctuations have caused problems with actually using bitcoin, with Steam recently announcing that it won’t be able to take it any more and multiple exchanges saying the huge amounts of trading is leading to problems with actually transferring them.
Naturally, its spectacular rise has coincided with increasing amounts of interest, with more and more people now looking to invest.
It also appears to have boosted alternative cryptocurrencies, such as ethereum and litecoin, which have both seen huge gains in recent weeks.
However, there are serious fears that bitcoin has created a bubble that could burst at any moment.
Numerous financial experts are advising potential investors to avoid getting involved with bitcoin, though others are speculating that it could keep rising towards the $1m mark.
Bitcoin only exists online, has no central bank and isn’t linked to or regulated by any state.
An anonymised record of every bitcoin transaction is stored on a huge public ledger known as a blockchain.
However, transactions made with the cryptocurrency are irreversible, which makes investors in bitcoin attractive targets for cybercriminals.
This article is being regularly updated to reflect bitcoin’s latest value.
