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Bitcoin Nears $17,000 After Climbing About $4,000 in Less Than a Day

Posted by msmash on from the topsy-turvy-world dept.

As economists attempt to make sense of Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency rocketed above $17,000 for the first time moments ago, adding about $4,000 to its price in fewer than 24 hours. Security reporter Brian Krebs tweeted on Thursday, "Closing in on $17k per bitcoin now (mind you, it was almost at $16k less than an hour ago. This is totally fine." Late Wednesday, finance author Ben Carlson wrote: Bitcoin has achieved something I've always wanted to see in the stock mkt - a reverse 1987 (20% gain in a single day)

6 of 464 comments (clear)

  1. Steam no longer accepts them by mikeabbott420 · · Score: 3, Informative

    it seems the expense of transactions is making them useless for their actual purpose. for the hundredth time I'm declaring that the end is nigh :)

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    1. Re: Steam no longer accepts them by spire3661 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Valve cited this yesterday as the reason they are no longer accepting Bitcoins as a payment option.

      "As of today, Steam will no longer support Bitcoin as a payment method on our platform due to high fees and volatility in the value of Bitcoin."

      http://steamcommunity.com/game...

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      Good-bye
  2. Re:So... by religionofpeas · · Score: 3, Informative

    The problem is that most of us don't have that sort of money sitting around

    1 Bitcoin is internally represented as 100 million basic units (the "Satoshi"). You can buy any number of Satoshis, so it's possible to buy 0.001 coins for instance.

  3. Re:Idiot commentator by e4liberty · · Score: 3, Informative
    BTW, to reverse a 20% loss you need a 25% gain. That's volatility!

    (x * 0.8) * 1.25 == x

  4. Re: So... by devman · · Score: 4, Informative

    Incorrect.

    You can literally deposit $170 to GDAX (coinbase) right now (if it were not crashing) and buy 0.01 BTC, there is no minimum to open a trading account on coinbase.

    To trade on equity markets you could go open an account with Fidelity, Schwab, or Robinhood (if app only is your thing) right now with no minimum and go trading to your hearts content.

  5. Assets and secondary markets by sjbe · · Score: 3, Informative

    Why ? Bitcoin is not a stock, and the Bitcoin exchanges don't function like stock markets.

    If you are buying bitcoin hoping it will appreciate in value relative to the dollar then it is a secondary market and as such it functions almost identically to a stock market as a practical matter. Bitcoin is just an asset like gold or beenie babies or pork bellies or frozen concentrated orange juice. Any discussion about the "value" of bitcoin is by definition in relation to how many dollars you can get for it which is no different than asking what the current price of a stock is in dollars. Stocks are assets and so is bitcoin.