05 May 2017, India:
Bitcoin surged to all-time high yesterday at $1,567. It recently crossed the mark of $1500 and has been constantly above that mark since then.
The price of Bitcoin went up by over 210% during the past year, trading from about $450 in mid-2016 to record-breaking levels of $1,500 in May 2017.
Bitcoin exchange markets of the US and Japan control over 66% of the global bitcoin exchange market with a combined daily trading volume of $246,7 million and that might have very well led to the current surge.
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As per the report by Investopedia, Japan has recently recognized Bitcoin as a legal method of payment, although it continues to be treated as an asset, and not as a currency. In India, the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance has constituted a committee to examine the existing framework around Virtual Currencies (VCs). The committee will not just examine the present status of VCs in India and around the globe, but will also suggest measures to deal with consumer protection and money laundering.
At the of press, the price of bitcoin was recovered and going steadily at $1543, it was down by $100 in one hour but managed to recover. Bitcoin start-ups have attracted huge investments in Bitcoin and blockchain companies with a total funding of $550 million in 2016, as per a report. Recently, blockchain based start-up fund for Venture Capital Industry- BitcoinGrowthFund (BGF) has been successful in raising more than $2.5 million as a part of its initial Coin Offering (ICO) in less than a week.
A guy named, Kristoffer Koch was writing a thesis on encryption in 2009 when he spent about $27 to buy 5,000 bitcoins. Koch’s original $27 investment is now worth about $886,000, that’s a return of 3,281,500% in four years! (Image- CoinDesk)
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