Bitcoin price shoots up $500 in 10 minutes as cryptocurrency pushes towards record high | The Independent
The price of bitcoin is closing in on its 2019 high, after shooting up by $500 (£400) in less than 10 minutes.
The latest surge in value on Monday follows several months of significant gains for the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, which have seen its price more than treble since the start of the year.
Its current price of $11,800 (£9,400) remains a long way off its all-time high of close to $20,000 (£16,000) that it reached in late 2017, but some analysts believe the record is in sight.
The notoriously volatile digital currency has been boosted in recent weeks by news that Facebook plans to launch its own cryptocurrency.
Interest from the tech giant should push forward much-needed regulation in the space, which should add legitimacy to bitcoin and the exchanges it is traded on.
1/8 Satoshi Nakamoto creates the first bitcoin block in 2009
On 3 January, 2009, the genesis block of bitcoin appeared. It came less than a year after the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto detailed the cryptocurrency in a paper titled ‘Bitcoin: A peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System’
Reuters
2/8 Bitcoin is used as a currency for the first time
On 22 May, 2010, the first ever real-world bitcoin transaction took place. Lazlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins – the equivalent of $90 million at today’s prices
Lazlo Hanyecz
3/8 Silk Road opens for business
Bitcoin soon gained notoriety for its use on the dark web. The Silk Road marketplace, established in 2011, was the first of hundreds of sites to offer illegal drugs and services in exchange for bitcoin
4/8 The first bitcoin ATM appears
On 29 October, 2013, the first ever bitcoin ATM was installed in a coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada. The machine allowed people to exchange bitcoins for cash
REUTERS/Dimitris Michalakis
5/8 The fall of MtGox
The world’s biggest bitcoin exchange, MtGox, filed for bankruptcy in February 2014 after losing almost 750,000 of its customers bitcoins. At the time, this was around 7 per cent of all bitcoins and the market inevitably crashed
Getty Images
6/8 Would the real Satoshi Nakamoto please stand up
In 2015, Australian police raided the home of Craig Wright after the entrepreneur claimed he was Satoshi Nakamoto. He later rescinded the claim
Getty Images
7/8 Bitcoin’s big split
On 1 August, 2017, an unresolvable dispute within the bitcoin community saw the network split. The fork of bitcoin’s underlying blockchain technology spawned a new cryptocurrency: Bitcoin cash
REUTERS
8/8 Bitcoin’s price sky rockets
Towards the end of 2017, the price of bitcoin surged to almost $20,000. This represented a 1,300 per cent increase from its price at the start of the year
Reuters
1/8 Satoshi Nakamoto creates the first bitcoin block in 2009
On 3 January, 2009, the genesis block of bitcoin appeared. It came less than a year after the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto detailed the cryptocurrency in a paper titled ‘Bitcoin: A peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System’
Reuters
2/8 Bitcoin is used as a currency for the first time
On 22 May, 2010, the first ever real-world bitcoin transaction took place. Lazlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins – the equivalent of $90 million at today’s prices
Lazlo Hanyecz
3/8 Silk Road opens for business
Bitcoin soon gained notoriety for its use on the dark web. The Silk Road marketplace, established in 2011, was the first of hundreds of sites to offer illegal drugs and services in exchange for bitcoin
4/8 The first bitcoin ATM appears
On 29 October, 2013, the first ever bitcoin ATM was installed in a coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada. The machine allowed people to exchange bitcoins for cash
REUTERS/Dimitris Michalakis
5/8 The fall of MtGox
The world’s biggest bitcoin exchange, MtGox, filed for bankruptcy in February 2014 after losing almost 750,000 of its customers bitcoins. At the time, this was around 7 per cent of all bitcoins and the market inevitably crashed
Getty Images
6/8 Would the real Satoshi Nakamoto please stand up
In 2015, Australian police raided the home of Craig Wright after the entrepreneur claimed he was Satoshi Nakamoto. He later rescinded the claim
Getty Images
7/8 Bitcoin’s big split
On 1 August, 2017, an unresolvable dispute within the bitcoin community saw the network split. The fork of bitcoin’s underlying blockchain technology spawned a new cryptocurrency: Bitcoin cash
REUTERS
8/8 Bitcoin’s price sky rockets
Towards the end of 2017, the price of bitcoin surged to almost $20,000. This represented a 1,300 per cent increase from its price at the start of the year
Reuters
Cryptocurrency experts have noted some key differences between the remarkable surge of 2017 and the price rally in 2019.
“Bitcoin has reacted much differently in its revival phase this year, after waking up from the crypto freeze of 2018,” Christel Quek, chief commercial officer of blockchain firm Bolt, told The Independent.
“While bitcoin increased by a staggering 215 per cent so far this year, its revival and growth has been quite mature and logical in comparison to 2017.”
Market analysts have described the dramatic price gains of 2017, which saw bitcoin rise from around $1,000 (£800) to close to $20,000 over the course of 11 months, as having the characteristics of a bubble.
This was fuelled by investors seeking to make a quick profit from the market frenzy.
“In contrast, 2019 has seen a more mature movement, while the revival has also been a natural reaction to a changing crypto-friendly atmosphere in mainstream finance,” Ms Quek said.
“For instance, Facebook and JP Morgan’s entry into the space was a major endorsement to the idea of digital currencies.”
Ms Quek predicts that bitcoin’s current momentum will continue, at least in the short term, with the 2017 record the next major milestone to pass.
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