Bitcoin has hit its highest price of $51,524 (roughly ₹ 38.67 lakhs) on Christmas Eve, the cryptocurrency’s value having risen by $23,000 (roughly ₹ 17.07 lakhs) in just seven days.
Though many people see cryptocurrency as a bubble that’s sure to burst at some point in the near future, the opinion is divided when it comes to forecasting what will happen to Bitcoin next.
Bitcoin’s value has snowballed in the last couple of days. On December 22, Bitcoin’s value was around $34,000 (roughly ₹ 25.65 lakhs), which went down to a little over $17,000 (roughly ₹ 12.75 lakhs) on Christmas Eve.
In November, after Bitcoin’s price touched almost $69,000 (roughly ₹ 51.77 lakhs), investors gained big profits. But their happiness was short-lived with the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring the outbreak of the Omicron COVID variant. That again took a toll on cryptocurrency prices.
Now, with this fresh rise in price, will Bitcoin’s value continue to surge, or will there be another fall? As of now, that remains an unanswered question, which only time can tell.
Meanwhile, Ether, the second-largest coin in the world, was trading $4,100 (roughly ₹ 3.07 lakhs).
Now let’s turn our attention to ETH – it’s been trading between $300 and $400 for most of the year.
The cryptocurrency’s price touched new highs in April and May. However, the excitement didn’t last for long, with Bitcoin entering a downward phase. The trend remained gloomy till the first-ever Bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) made its debut in the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in October. It goes by the ticker name of BITO. This was a landmark moment for cryptocurrency and was seen as another step closer to mainstream investing.
In between, all those discussions about energy consumption to mine Bitcoin also had an impact on the cryptocurrency’s value. But then, El Salvador recognized Bitcoin as a legal tender, and on September 7, became the first country to use the cryptocurrency as a means of exchange for goods and services. In a way, El Salvador’s step could also encourage other countries in the region to take a similar leap.
