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15th Dec 2017

Bitcoin has hit another all-time high… again (but this one’s coming with a massive warning)

Michael Lanigan

Euromillions

It might reach $20,000 by Sunday.

Bitcoin hit another all-time high on Friday (15 December) as its value went past $17,800.

With the previous record set a whole three days earlier, when on 12 December the online currency was at $17,631.42, really this week has seemed the sanest for some time as the value has remained above $16,000, save for one brief dip on 13 December when it was at $15,700.

This has been due to the fact that people are now shopping around for alternative cryptocurrencies, like Ripple, Ethereum and Dash, considering the staggering rise in Bitcoin’s value has led many financial experts to suggest this is the next major bubble.

In the last year, Bitcoin has gone up by more than 1,700%, starting at $1,000 in January before reaching $17,801.94 at 10.30 UTC on Friday, meaning in December alone, its value has gone up 77%.

Visually, we’re looking at a graph that resembles a hockey stick. Those aren’t typically great, since they tend to mean a bubble is on the horizon.

Another ominous sign here is fear of missing out among inexperienced or first-time investors who decide to get in on the action. They are looking for a swing of the hockey stick too, which is nice, but it does mean somebody is probably going to get hurt. This is made somewhat evident in the latest round of Most Googled Terms of 2017, with “How to buy Bitcoin” and “What is Bitcoin” ranking high consistently.

This isn’t much of an insider trading tip, but if you have to Google it, you shouldn’t buy it.

It looks tempting, though, because the Bitcoin saga is nowhere near ending. According to CoinDesk, there’s a strong possibility that it could come close to $20,000 ahead of the next set of Bitcoin Futures listings due to be released on Sunday, 17 December.

I know what you’re thinking.

We’re all thinking that too.

Let’s just start 2018 afresh and look for another unprecedented financial phenomenon to bet big on.

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Topics:

bitcoin