2019 was an interesting year for bitcoin with new sites like Cryptobuyer.com launching reliable sites for investment. The world’s leading digital cryptocurrency experienced a boom in 2017 that proved to be unsustainable, and 2018 saw an inevitable crash that some commentators saw as the bursting of a bubble. In fact, it proved to be a necessary period of stabilisation. The fair-weather investors who had bought into bitcoin in the previous year jumped ship when the weather got turbulent. This of course further hastened the currency’s plunge.
After bottoming out, the market has been able to re-establish itself on a more realistic footing. So for those who want to dive into investing, they can forge their path on platforms such as krypto kitty.
A rollercoaster recovery
Overall, 2019 has been a story of recovery for bitcoin. The shakeout in late 2018 saw its value drop from $6,500 in October to a low of $3,122 on 15th December. According to a post at Kjøper og Selger Aksjer, at the start of 2019, a single bitcoin was worth just $3,717, a far cry from the peaks of 2017 when it briefly reached nearly $20,000 in December. Yet bitcoin’s value had only exceeded $2,000 for the first time in May 2017. The currency continued to be volatile throughout 2019, but generally we did not see the wild fluctuations of previous years. Although for investors, it may have felt like a rollercoaster at times, at the end of the year, bitcoin was worth almost twice as much as at the start.
The first quarter
Bitcoin increased in value by 10% over the initial three months of 2019, closing out at $4,092. During January, the initial exchange offering (IEO) of BitTorrent raised over $7m in just 15 seconds, precipitating a wave of IEOs as ways to raise large sums very quickly. Since January, almost every major exchange has created its own IEO launch platform.
February saw JP Morgan announce that they intended to launch their own cryptocurrency, the JPM Coin. In the same month, NASDAQ added the bitcoin liquid index to their trading services. All of this added up to greater recognition from major financial institutions of cryptocurrencies in general, and bitcoin in particular.
The boom period
Bitcoin’s value started to rise rapidly in April and this continued until the currency reached a peak of $13,880 on 21st June. At the same time, the bitcoin derivatives market began to take off. Binance, the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, announced plans to launch a bitcoin futures trading platform with leverage of up to 125x. Obviously, this would mean a huge leap in the volume of bitcoin being traded. Anyone wanting to find the best trading sites for bitcoin can learn more on this page.
Settling down
From that late June high, bitcoin’s value dropped dramatically to $10,442 on 1st July — still significantly higher than its start-of-year price. The currency reached its highest value of Q3 in early August, reaching $11,815 on the 7th then dropping to $10,137 a week later. Through late August and most of September, the currency was relatively stable at around $9-10,000, but late September saw it drop to $7,994 by the 29th.
Institutional interest
June saw Facebook’s plans to launch its own cryptocurrency, Libra, hit the headlines. This signalled a new wave of institutional interest in alternative digital currencies, and Libra’s initial backers included Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and eBay.
However, in October, all of these big-name backers including the best bitcoin casino 2022 withdrew their support, after the US Congress voiced strong concerns about Facebook’s plans.
Plans to regulate bitcoin were discussed in both the US and the UK, where the Financial Conduct Authority was advertising for cryptocurrency experts to join their team. September saw the launch of Bakkt, the bitcoin futures trading platform of the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) who own the New York Stock Exchange.
Although bitcoin continued to lose value during this period, the interest of major financial institutions and governments was welcome, as it showed that the currency was being taken seriously by these parties. The Stuttgart Stock Exchange also launched its bitcoin trading platform on 23rd September.
The final quarter
Bitcoin rocked to a high of $9,595 on 27th October after the Chinese president urged his country to invest further in blockchain technology, but it dropped again in November, closing the month at $7,528. After reaching a low of $6,861 in mid-December, bitcoin finished the year at $7,100.
It seems that after reaching a peak of interest over the summer, bitcoin declined in the second half of 2019 amid rumblings of governmental interference across the globe. However, the currency closed the year in substantially better shape than it was at the start, and it has held steady so far in 2020.
Bitcoin remains one of the best-performing assets in a year that saw turbulence across all markets. The future looks likely to bring increased stability, along with regulation and greater investment from major institutions. It could be a good time to get on board.
