by Mark O’Byrne, Gold Core:
Last week the bitcoin price hit $2,700. A 500-fold increase in five years and a doubling in price since the start of the month.
Most people are aware of bitcoin tangentially, few are really conscious of it day-to-day and even fewer people are actually in bitcoin. Other significant cryptocurrencies, such as Ether and Ripple have also been going great guns and these are even less prominent in the public domain.
If something such as bitcoin with such a small market cap and very little public awareness is doubling in price in less than a month, what does it mean? Why is it behaving like this? Is it in a bubble? Is it a scam? Does it means that you should be getting in on the act? And what does it mean for its contemporaries, such as gold?
We take a brief look at why the price has been climbing, what this means for the future of cryptocurrencies and, most importantly, what this says about gold.