Bitcoin Tops $1,000 For the First Time

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Bitcoin Tops $1,000 For the First Time

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Wednesday November 27, 2013 @05:36AM from the from-the-top-you-can-only-go-down dept.

An anonymous reader writes with this bit from The Next Web "Bitcoin hit a new milestone today, passing the $1,000 mark for the first time. The virtual currency is currently trading above the four-digit figure, with its highest at $1,030 on Mt. Gox, one of the largest exchanges. Last week, Bitcoin's high for the day was $632. That means its trading value has surged 62.83 percent in a week, assuming we're looking at just its high points. That figure could of course rise even further if Bitcoin continues to push further up throughout the day."

14 of 371 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Sell now. by Frosty+Piss · 2013-11-27 05:37 · Score: 5, Insightful

The price may go up a little more, but all indications are sell now before the crash.

--
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
1. Re:Sell now. by Ralph+Wiggam · 2013-11-27 05:40 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Tons of people said that when the price spiked from $4 to $20.
2. Re:Sell now. by CanHasDIY · 2013-11-27 05:46 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  The price may go up a little more, but all indications are sell now to kickstart the crash.
  FTFY.
  Most market crashes are triggered by large sell-offs; by imploring people to sell, sell, sell, you're doing your part to make the prophecy self-fulfilling.
  
  --
  An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
3. Re:Sell now. by alexander_686 · 2013-11-27 07:14 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Read up on “Short Selling” in the stock market.
  What you do is borrow BitCoins from party A, exchanging your cash for their BitCcoins. Then sell those BitCoins for cash to party B. You now owe BitCoins and own cash. When BitCoins crash you buy back those BitCoins at a lower price to satisfy your loan to Party A.
  There are people who claim that short selling can drive the price down. I don’t think you can. Or rather, a very large group can temporally drive the price down by short selling. But in the long run it balances out - as you said for every short seller there is a long buyer. So I don’t give the OP much credence. But then again I think he was trying to make a joke.
  A word of warning - there is a old saying that the markets can stay rational longer then you can stay solvent.
4. Re:Sell now. by ultranova · 2013-11-27 08:23 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  And when you do get margin called, you're fucked.
  Don't play more than you're willing to risk if it tanks completely.
  
  Better yet: stick to buying and selling. Leave derivatives to the professionals. Even they trip up on them, as the financial crisis shows, but they'll also get bailed out while you won't.
  
  --
  Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
Why do they call it a currency? by bob_super · 2013-11-27 05:47 · Score: 4, Insightful

This is just a hyper-volatile investment which can be bartered against goods from people who are either gamblers or clueless.
All currencies are volatile to some extent, but this thing has no fundamentals to back it up.
1. Re:Why do they call it a currency? by MickyTheIdiot · 2013-11-27 05:49 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  same ol' shit every thread.
Anyone want tulips? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-11-27 05:55 · Score: 5, Insightful

.Seems like March 1637 all over again.
Re:dammit... by TubeSteak · 2013-11-27 06:06 · Score: 4, Insightful

Massive currency volatility makes long term business planning impossible.
Unless bitcoin settles down, it'll never become a viable mainstream alternative.

--
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Cryptolocker Spike? by texaopian · 2013-11-27 06:06 · Score: 5, Insightful

Does anyone think that the rise in price might be a result of the new demand for Bitcoins due to Cryptolocker outbreak?
Re:Big ass hole by Lord+Apathy · 2013-11-27 06:19 · Score: 4, Insightful

There is no ulterior motive or even sour grapes, just pure speculation at this point. Even most bitcoin "investers" believe that bitcoins are over priced. An they would be correct.
People are hording them like stocks hoping the value will keep going up and up. While bitcoins maybe be a virtual currency and not subject to the whims and regulations of any government they are still affected by the laws of economics, human greed, and insecurity.
The higher the value that bitcoins go the more people will start to get nervous about it and start wanting to sell. When this happens more people will sell and then the market will become over saturated with sellers and not enough buyers. Then the value will crash, free fall is a better word for it.
An since bitcoins are not regulated by any government there are no safety nets in place to stop a bitcoin freefall. I don't even know if it can be stopped because of the way they work.
I'm not just pulling these theories out of my ass ether. There is precedent for just such a collapse. The stock market collapse in the late '20 and early '30 that brought on the great depression. The things that caused it are currently all in place to cause a "great bitcoin depression."
Now I'm not saying that a bitcoin free fall will cause any kind of global economic collapse. Bitcoins are not that popular or even well known to cause that. In reality a bitcoin collapse will probably be barely noticed by most people.

--
Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification
Re:Who wants to prick the bubble? by Pr0xY · 2013-11-27 06:28 · Score: 5, Insightful

I recently had a discussion about whether or not the spike in BTC is a bubble or not and came to some interesting conclusions.
From what I can tell, essentially a bubble burst occurs when prices have become so inflated that people are priced out of buying in. This creates a lack of buyers, causing the sellers to dramatically drop their prices. For example, if I buy a house for $100,000, and then sell it for $150,000, then they sell it at $250,000, etc, etc. Eventually the price gets so high that people just won't buy the house. Leaving the last buyer to take the hit and sell at a loss (if he chooses to sell).
BTC is somewhat different though. It is divisible to 8 decimal places (infinitely divisible in theory, just need to update the clients). So people can never be "priced out" of the market, they can just buy a smaller slice of the pie if they desire. This is unlike a house where I (typically) can't buy just a fraction of it.
So the only thing I can say for sure, is that we cannot be sure whether or not the rapid rise in BTC value is a bubble which will burst or not.
Re:Big ass hole by Bacon+Bits · 2013-11-27 06:32 · Score: 4, Insightful

Bitcoins are a nice idea but people are not treating them like money. They are treating them like stocks and commodities. They are not commodities, they are coins and coins are supposed to be spent.
Money is a commodity. Money markets and foreign exchange markets prove that it is.

--
The road to tyranny has always been paved with claims of necessity.
Re:Who wants to prick the bubble? by iluvcapra · 2013-11-27 08:09 · Score: 4, Insightful

If you buy a commodity, or any item with a static underlying value, with the expectation that you will profit from appreciation, you are a speculator. Having a years-long time horizon, or a moral commitment to the commodity, does not significantly change your status.

--
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.