The price of bitcoin fell below the $ 19,000 milestone hours after reaching its previous record in 2017 of $ 19,783.21, demonstrating the volatility of the cryptocurrency once again as hackers picked up its success.
Bitcoin surpassed its previous record within a day, set on 18 December 2017, to rise as high as $ 19,888.82 at 11:10 AM GMT on December 1, according to data from the Luxembourg exchange Bitstamp.
But in the hours that followed it dropped slightly to fall below $ 19,000, trading at around $ 18,850 at 12:45 GMT.
The digital currency has been rising for the past two months, as institutional investors plow into the alternative asset class. Analysts at Deutsche Bank said the digital currency made gains of more than 40% in November, following an increase of 27.39% the month before.
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Paolo Ardoino, chief technology officer at Bitfinex, said the ascent to a new climax will always “charm” new and existing investors in the asset.
“Yet much more consequently are the essentials that fuel this rally, especially the growing presence of institutional investors,” he added. “Bitcoin is still emerging and even relatively small allocations to the asset class from investment funds can have a seismic effect.”
LMAX Digital, a cryptocurrency trading platform in the City, said it registered daily volumes of nearly $ 2bn on November 26 as the rally picked up. More than 70% of that volume was powered by bitcoin.
Some heavyweight investors continued to pour doubt on the penny’s rise last week, with veteran markets fund manager Mark Mobius saying Financial News bitcoin’s current price level is “based on no reliable information”.
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But bitcoin fundholders are typically eager. On November 30, crypto entrepreneur Tyler Winklevoss told CNBC that the blockchain-based asset would one day hit $ 500,000 a penny. “We think bitcoin is here to say,” he said.
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