Bitcoin hits new record high as warnings grow louder

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

#BUSINESS NEWS DECEMBER 15, 2017 / 6:47 AM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO

Bitcoin hits new record high as warnings grow louder

Jemima Kelly
3 MIN READ

LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin blasted to another all-time high of almost $18,000 on the Bitstamp exchange on Friday, up 9 percent on the day, as warnings grew over the risks of investing in the highly volatile and speculative instrument.

The cryptocurrency’s staggering recent price rises -- more than 1,700 percent since the start of the year -- have driven worries that the market is a bubble that could burst in spectacular fashion.

Bitcoin has climbed almost 80 percent so far in December alone, putting it on track for its best month in percentage terms since December 2013.

On Friday it reached as high as $17,900 BTC=BTSP on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets-bitcoin/bitcoin-hits-new-record-high-as-warnings-grow-louder-idUSKBN1E919T

[underpants]

1. How would you physically turn in Bitcoin?

I'm a bit lost.

[HeartachesNhangovers]

6. Not sure if you are serious, but you can't

physically turn it in, because it doesn't physically exist. Often, articles about bitcoin show some coins with the bitcoin symbol, but those aren't "bitcoins", they are photo props.

To redeem bitcoin for something of value, you need to find someone who is willing to accept it, then do a digital transaction which changes the ownership of the bitcoin from you to the other "person".

[gibraltar72]

2. Tulip bulbs

My guess this is a market of the bigger fool.

[wasupaloopa]

3. If one bitcoin cost $18,000 how do you pay your credit card bill with it?

[ret5hd]

5. You use fractional "pieces" of the bitcoin.

You have now exhausted my entire bitcoin knowledge. Ask me no more.

[HeartachesNhangovers]

4. What is the point of these warnings? Could there

actually be someone investing or considering investing in bitcoin that doesn't understand that this is as speculative as it gets? I really don't think so.

[safeinOhio]

7. It started in July of 2010 and the price

was .06 cents for one Bitcoin.