Bitcoin Value Drops By Nearly a Third
Bitcoin has in the last year made some people very rich indeed. From those who invested a couple hundred pounds in it even a year ago, they are currently sitting a lot prettier now. However, they were sitting much prettier just a week ago.
A week ago, Bitcoin was finally threatening to smash the $20,000 mark, however, in the last few days, we have seen a major downturn with the currency losing nearly a third of its value.
On the 17th of December, CoinDesk held the value at $19,700. The highest it had ever been. A poor week for the currency however currently has the value (in less than 5 days) down to around $13,700. Put simply, Bitcoin has lost around $6,000 in value in less than a week.
It is exactly for this type of volatility that Steam decided to stop accepting the currency.
Disturbing reading
There are of course reasons for the current downturn. The fact that an exchange in South Korea had to shut this week following successive cyber attacks was certainly one.
I am sure that there are other reasons as well. Perfectly reasonable ones. It is exactly this level of volatility, however, that worries me about Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies. The above chart simply does not lie.
While it is not uncommon for currencies to gain or lose value, generally speaking, anything beyond 10p or 10c is considered highly worrying. For Bitcoin to lose $6,000 in less than a week, to me at least, is downright disturbing.
I am certainly not saying that the Bitcoin bubble has burst, but the last week shows just how quickly it could change. In my opinion, the currency desperately needs to find its true value, and quickly. Such fluctuations will do absolutely nothing to build confidence.
What do you think? Is Bitcoin about to burst? Will such massive price changes in short periods be normal? – Let us know in the comments!
