After all the ups and downs Bitcoin (btc) is proving that investing in digital currencies isn’t for the faint of heart. Lately and based in Budapest I see all the recent developments of btc, just 4 years ago I managed to secure some healthy positions when it was worth about 24€ per btc then mid July 2017 it went up to 2500€ per btc and during the last two months it went up to over 7000€ per btc.
After plunging as much as 29 percent from a record high following the cancellation of a technology upgrade on Nov. 8, the largest cryptocurrency came roaring back in early trading Monday before fluctuating between gains and losses.
“Crypto trading is not for the novice investor,” said John Spallanzani, chief macro strategist at GFI Securities LLC in New York.
While multiple reasons are being cited for the price volatility, one of the more viable is that some investors are switching to alternative coins. Bitcoin cash, an offshoot of bitcoin that includes many of the technical upgrades being debated by developers, has more than doubled in the same period, however I wouldn't suggest changing to other cryptocurrency alternatives since the only one I endorse and support is Bitcoin.
While markets had been focusing on bitcoin’s more than 500 percent surge this year, bitcoin cash was gaining popularity because of its larger block size. That’s a characteristic that makes transactions cheaper and faster than the original but I don't believe it could take over not yet.
When a faction of the cryptocurrency community canceled plans to increase bitcoin’s block size on Wednesday -- a move that would have created another offshoot -- some supporters of bigger blocks rallied around bitcoin cash.
The resulting volatility has been extreme even by bitcoin’s wild standards and comes amid growing interest in cryptocurrencies among regulators, banks and fund managers. While skeptics have called its rapid advance a bubble, the asset has become too big for many on Wall Street to ignore. Even after shrinking as much as $38 billion since Nov. 8, bitcoin boasts a market value of about $110 billion.
Supporters of bitcoin’s technology upgrade “are now switching support to bitcoin cash,” said Mike Kayamori, head of Tokyo-based Quoine, the world’s second most-active bitcoin exchange over the past day. “There’s a panic about what’s happening. People shouldn’t panic. Just hold on to both coins until we see how it plays out.”
The cancellation of last week’s bitcoin upgrade has left users to choose between the two versions of the cryptocurrency. On one side is the original bitcoin, powered by so-called SegWit technology, which aims to improve its performance by moving unessential data off of its underlying blockchain which eventually will have to evolve to be able to improve the blockchain. On the other we have bitcoin cash which we don't know too much about it.
Proponents of bitcoin cash believe their approach is simpler and closer to the original goal of bitcoin, which was described primarily as a payment system in its white paper. Supporters of the original bitcoin say that vision is too limited, and that by improving the blockchain with SegWit technology, bitcoin can become a new digital-asset class that not only supports payments but countless other functions.
Upgrade Called Off
While bitcoin cash has been around for months, it saw limited support as the community awaited last week’s technology upgrade for the original bitcoin, which promised similar features. Now that the upgrade has been called off, businesses that use the cryptocurrency primarily as a payment method are expected to increase adoption of bitcoin cash.
While bitcoin cash surged over the weekend, it hasn’t been a straight line up. The cryptocurrency was trading at $1,300 at 4:45 p.m. in New York, down from a high of about $2,478 on Sunday, Coinmarketcap.com prices show.
Bitcoin has been similarly volatile; it initially rose after news that it would avoid another split, but the gains were short-lived. Its plunge earlier Monday to as low as $5,605 compares with an intraday record $7,882 on Nov. 8.
I believe Bitcoin will still dominate the world of cryptocurrency and if you are hesitant to buy it, then you could also opt for the alternative of Investing in the stock market with The Bitcoin Group SE a holding company focused on innovative and disruptive business models and technologies from the field of cryptocurrency and blockchain.
The Bitcoin Group SE holds 100% of the shares of the Bitcoin Deutschland AG that operates the only German authorised trading platform for the digital currency bitcoin under the domain Bitcoin.de. and it is currently trading at a discounted price of 76€ per share. So there you have it, either buying bitcoins or Investing on them might be a move that should be made and for now let's just forget about bitcoin cash.
Meanwhile I don't want to hear about any other ICO's not even Bitcoin for a while so secure positions and see you with the Millions.