Bitcoin Shakes off Recent Worries to Trade Above $15,000

By Dipo Olowookere

After an unbridled period, the price of popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, seems to be recovering gradually, rising above $15,000.

In the early hours of Thursday, January 4, 2018, (Nigerian time) the value of the currency, according to Coinbase Exchange, stood at $15,279.

In mid-December 2017, the Bitcoin hit a new record high after passing the $19,850 mark, but slumped heavily below $12,000 within days.

Bitcoin value has increased by over two percent in the last 24 hours, more than 30 percent over last month and more than 1,320 percent over the last year.

Business Post gathered that as at yesterday, the price of Bitcoin was close to $15,000, trading precisely at $14,964.

Experts have remained sceptical about cryptocurrencies especially Bitcoin because it only exists online and has no central bank, or linked to or regulated by any state.

In Nigeria, it is still not accepted by government as a legal tender, though it is being looked into critically.

Nigerian authorities have warned citizens to be careful of the cryptocurrency wave and be careful in embracing it so as not to suffer another heartbreak like they did during the MMM Ponzi scheme two years ago.

In China, a ban has been placed on cryptocurrencies and there are no indications it would be lifted anytime soon.

Bitcoin is notoriously volatile, and its value is expected to continue to shift unpredictably. Its rise has also led to increasing amounts of interest in alternative cryptocurrencies, such as ethereum, litecoin and XRP.

Those fluctuations have caused problems with actually using bitcoin, with Steam recently announcing that it won’t be able to take it anymore and multiple exchanges saying the huge amounts of trading is leading to problems with actually transferring them.

Bitcoin’s value fell dramatically just ahead of Christmas, dropping by almost $2,000 in just an hour at one point, and almost slipping below the $11,000 mark.

Naturally, its spectacular rise has coincided with increasing amounts of interest, with more and more people now looking to invest.

However, there are serious fears that bitcoin has created a bubble that could burst at any moment.