Why did Bitcoin’s price jump?
FOR a second time Bitcoin’s market value surpassed the $1trillion mark on Tuesday, March 9, as the price of the cryptocurrency recent decline regained some momentum. The price of Bitcoin jumped again after stumbling by more than 10 percent at the end of February when it fell below the $50,000 mark. What is Bitcoin’s trade […]
FOR a second time Bitcoin’s market value surpassed the $1trillion mark on Tuesday, March 9, as the price of the cryptocurrency recent decline regained some momentum.
The price of Bitcoin jumped again after stumbling by more than 10 percent at the end of February when it fell below the $50,000 mark.
What is Bitcoin’s trade value as of Tuesday, March 9?
As of Tuesday, March 9, the value of one Bitcoin climbed by 6.3 percent from a the day prior to $54,274.
The total value of the world’s biggest digital coin now stands at $1.1 trillions, CoinDesk’s data show.
It’s only the second time that Bitcoin’s value has surpassed the $1trillion mark after it previously hit the milestone for the first time on February 19.
However, Bitcoin’s market capitalization held above $1trillion for a few days, before tumbling by 10 percent the following week.
Bitcoin is still shy from it’s all-time high of $58,332, however, it’s seen a huge rally over the years.
The digital currency is up over 80 percent this year and 570 percent higher over the last 12 months.
Why did Bitcoin’s price jump again?
The cryptocurrency’s recent surge followed further signals that institutional investors and large corporations are coming around to the digital coin.
Tesla, Square and Microstrategy are among the companies that have purchased Bitcoin.
On Sunday, March 7, a Chinese appmaker called Meitu said that it had invested in Bitcoin and Ether.
Ether, a cryptocurrency which runs on the Ethereum network, was trading at $1,836.73 at around 10:41am Singapore time, up nearly 7 percent from a day before, according to CoinDesk.
On Monday, NYDIG, a Bitcoin-focused investment firm, announced it had raised $200million from a group of investors including Wall Street giants Morgan Stanley, New York Life and Soros Fund Management.
NYDIG also said that insurers now own more than $1 billion worth of Bitcoin-related exposure on the company’s platform, a fact that it called “an example of accelerating institutional bitcoin adoption.”
What did Bill Gates say about Bitcoin?
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is worried about Bitcoin’s meteoric rise, saying “it’s not a great climate thing”.
“Bitcoin uses more electricity per transaction than any other method known to mankind,” Gates told The New York Times, adding, “It’s not a great climate thing.”
The Times reports that the annual carbon emissions from the electricity generated to mine and process the cryptocurrency equal the amount emitted by New Zealand or Argentina.
And given the way Bitcoin works, the more popular it becomes, the larger its carbon footprint grows.
However, Gates left the door open to having his mind changed on the cryptocurrency.
“If it’s green electricity and it’s not crowding out other uses, eventually, you know, maybe that’s OK.”
In February, Gates warned Bitcoin fans to avoid buying the cryptocurrency unless they’re super rich.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Gates revealed that he fretted traders without much cash to spare are taking a huge financial risk.
Gates – the world’s third richest man behind Tesla owner Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos – warned of getting swept up in the “mania” surrounding Bitcoin.
Most read in News
“Elon has tonnes of money and he’s very sophisticated, so I don’t worry that his Bitcoin will sort of randomly go up or down,” the 65-year-old said.
“I do think people get bought into these manias who may not have as much money to spare.
“My general thought would be that if you have less money than Elon, you should probably watch out.”