Confidence in virtual currencies has increased in the past fortnight after the EU ruled out a Bitcoin ban and the US Senate discussed the introduction of laws to regulate the notoriously volatile crypto-markets.
Last week, the value of Bitcoin plunged to a low of almost $8,000, but it’s now close to $11,000 after hitting its highest level since January. Ethereum increased in price by about 25% over the same period, with LiteCoin performing similarly and Ripple up by about 15 percent. So will the rise continues or is this just the latest inflation of a bubble that’s doomed to pop? Sadly, we just don’t know.
One expert recently said the price of Bitcoin will double within six months and regain the astonishing heights it reached before its value plunged in the recent ‘cryptopocalypse’. A group of 13 experts have suggested Bitcoin will be the best performing of all cryptocurrencies this year and could shoot up to a value of $14,928 by March 1 and hit $43,472 by the year’s end – almost four times what it’s worth now. However, not everyone shares this optimism. Cryptocurrency investors could lose their life savings ‘at any time’ due to the volatility of the digital money markets, the co-founder of Bitcoin’s closest rival has warned.
Vitalik Buterin, the 24-year-old Russian ‘boy genius’ who invented Ethereum, fears that anyone who ploughs their cash into virtual currencies could be ruined in an instant. He advised investors to put their money into more old-fashioned assets and make sure they only put in money they can ‘afford to lose’. ‘Cryptocurrencies are still a new and hyper-volatile asset class, and could drop to near-zero at any time,’ he wrote on Twitter.