Bitcoin crosses IBM and Walt Disney market cap, trades above $10,000 mark
In a first, the price of Bitcoin soared above the $10,000-mark to trade at $10,620.62 on Luxumberg-based BitStamp exchange. The cryptocurrency also soared on other global exchanges, including Coinbase's GDAX exchange, Paxos's itBit exchange and Gemini.
According to news website Coindesk, bitcoin opened at $9,908.23, and went on an all-time high to $10,831.75.
Coinmarketcap.com said that with this price rise, the total market capitalisation of Bitcoins has risen to $180.16 billion, up 8.31 percent in the last 24 hours. Interestingly, market capitalisation of technology major IBM stands at $141.16 billion, and that Walt Disney Co $156.18 billion.
Experts said there isn’t a better time to buy Bitcoins, considering the massive uptick in their value. However, given the severe volatility in their price, Bitcoins have also come under criticism.
At the current price, Bitcoins have shown a growth of more than 900 percent over the course of a year, with prices climbing 230 percent from the low of $3,000 touched in mid-September. The price of one Bitcoin stood at $997.68 on January 1, 2017. By June 2, it had crossed the $2,500-mark, and the $5000-mark in October.
On November 11, 2017, Bitcoin prices plummetted 29 percent from a record high of $7,882.
Media reports suggest the reason for the fall was as “a group within the Bitcoin community abandoned its push for an update to the cryptocurrency that would ensure faster transaction speeds called ‘Segwit2x’.” [Read more here]
Earlier in a suspension statement, SegWit2x lobby led by Mike Belshe, Wences Casares, Jihan Wu, Jeff Garzik, Peter Smith, and Erik Voorhees said,
“Our goal has always been a smooth upgrade for Bitcoin. Although we strongly believe in the need for a larger block size, there is something we believe is even more important: keeping the community together. Unfortunately, it is clear that we have not built sufficient consensus for a clean blocksize upgrade at this time. Continuing on the current path could divide the community and be a setback to Bitcoin’s growth. This was never the goal of Segwit2x.”
Rival cryptocurrency Bitcoin Cash, spun off from Bitcoin in August, surged past the $2000 price point, reaching close to $2426 earlier this month.
According to Coinmarket.cap, Bitcoin Cash is currently priced at $1,582.
On November 28, data from Google Trends showed the search for ‘Bitcoin Bubble’ hit the level 100, the highest in the past seven days.
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