Bitcoin breaks $5,000 for the first time

Bitcoin, known as the popular currency for those whom frequent the black market, and to most others a currency almost impossible to understand has had a not so surprisingly difficult history.  Its values have flown and crashed regularly ever since its inception.

Yet in the early hours of Saturday morning the currency’s value broke $5,000 per bitcoin for the first time in its history.  This result is remarkably impressive seeing as one bitcoin traded for less than $1,000 in January, coupled with some analysts in July predicting a dive in value. They had attributed this prediction to a “mooted civil war” against the currency’s future.

Its growth has been stimulated by implementing a compromise plan to let technology handle more transactions per minute, and the updating of the blockchain (a system designed to record all bitcoin transactions) to Bitcoin Cash. Both events generated much media attention boosting interest in the currency.  There was a significant need to improve confidence in the currency following a host of well publicised security based issues.

"We've seen drops like this happen before when a particular number is hit - often because people have placed orders with exchanges to exit a currency when it reaches a certain value," said Eitan Jankelewitz, a specialist in crypto-currencies at the London-based law firm Sheridans.

"And it’s human nature to pick a round number like $5,000, but traditional investors are starting to view having crypto-currency as a small part of their diversified portfolios as an acceptable way to add risk. Plus, there are more companies that are making it easy to buy Bitcoin at scale without having to understand how the technology works or how to keep it safe."

It seems for the short-term at least, the currency is likely to continue to grow.