Ever since its inception and launch, Bitcoin has seen price changes over the years with some recorded to be the worst. For instance, the worst crash in Bitcoin prices happened in November of 2013 and lasted a whopping 411 days to be corrected in January of 2015.
This fall saw the price of Bitcoin plummet by a whopping 87%. Recently the biggest fall in the price of the digital currency happened in December of 2017 and lasted for 48 days to be corrected in February 2018. This dip saw the prices drop by 59% from $20,000 to $8,094. This was due to a high profile hack that saw over half a billion dollars worth of bitcoin being stolen from an exchange called Coincheck.
RISE AND FALL
The rise, fall and subsequent rebound of Bitcoin have been followed closely by people all over the world, and the reason for the great interest has been the value regarding investments for people who were shrewd enough to put their money in Bitcoins. As the world goes digital, it is only natural that currency also turns digital and Bitcoins are indeed the alternative of the future.
A dip in the price of 1.8% might not look significant for many considering the major price falls that have been seen with Bitcoin. However, for the traders who look to buy low and sell high, even such a small fall in prices is good news. A South Korean cryptocurrency exchange called Bithump was hacked on June 20th, 2018.
Check out where bitcoin and other cryptocurrency is actually held by the expert.
Cryptocurrency Exchange
The local exchange trades over 37 different virtual coins and is one of the trusted in South Korea. The hackers were able to steal $31.5 million or 35 billion won worth of Bitcoin from the exchange. Though this is considerable regarding the total amount, it is a small fraction of the total volumes of transactions.
The exchange reported that only the Bitcoin in their hot wallets were stolen. The rest of the Bitcoin is stored in cold wallets that are not directly connected to the internet. To gain access to such wallets, the hackers must have physical access to the exchange. It is this system of checks and counterbalances that makes Bitcoin a lot safer.
During that time the latest Bitcoin updates indicated that the digital currency was down 1.8% to $6,612.92. This would have been a good time for those investors that wanted to make more to buy more Bitcoin. The prices have stabilized now, and Bitcoin is trading at over $8,100 again which means good returns for those that invested in cryptocurrency during this period.
Investment
Investing during a period of the downturn is a prudent method followed by investors all over the world. This is especially true in the case of investments where the value setback is only temporary and will rebind in a matter of time. This is exactly why many investors had turned rich fast by investing when the value dipped.
So what are the exchanges doing about to ensure the security of their bitcoins and other digital currencies they trade in? It is extremely difficult to 100% assure the security of Bitcoins because they are held anonymously. By very nature of being a blockchain concept and a decentralized one, it is by and large secure by design. However, hackers seem to have picked out vulnerabilities, resulting in breaches.
See More: How to get profit from bitcoin?
However, exchanges are ensuring the use of cold wallets through which Bitcoins and other digital currencies are not directly connected to the internet. This makes it hard for hackers to gain access to the Bitcoins remotely through hacking. These and other new measures will ensure that Bitcoins will be a lot safer than they presently are.
Several Factors for Bitcoin Fall
What are the factors that caused Bitcoin prices to fall? The prices fall due to different reasons, but one of the best known is hacking where some Bitcoins are stolen. Other reasons include; media influence where negative news may affect the prices, regulations that keep coming up also affect the prices of bitcoin. However with all these factors coming at the prices of Bitcoin still keep stabilizing and regaining value.
This is because of how indelible the use of cryptocurrency has become in most markets. Some people are even considering it a mainstream form of currency as even some stores accept digital currencies. Trading in cryptocurrency will, therefore, continue to happen regardless of the dips in prices that may happen from time to time.
Conclusion
Despite all the news about bitcoins and the fact that some nations are exploring ways to restrict usage, the fact is that in some nations it has been accepted as legitimate. This is good news as it means that governments slowly realize the importance of Bitcoin as a form of alternative currency. The most technologically advanced governments are the ones that have embraced Bitcoins.
