Bitcoin has risen again, rising to new all-time highs of more than $ 24,000 per bitcoin after starting the week at less than $ 19,000.
Just this week, the price of bitcoin rose a staggering 30%, to $ 24,220 on the Bitcoin-based exchange of Bitcoins and cryptocurrencies based in Luxembourg before falling slightly.
However, amid Santa’s huge rally of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies this week – which has added more than $ 100 billion to the value of digital tokens in the world – Brian Armstrong, executive director of Coinbase, has warned about the “risk” of investing bitcoins and cryptocurrencies.
Only this week the price of bitcoin has increased by 30%, which adds to gains of more than 200% overall … [+]
Getty Images
“While it’s great to see market concentrations and see how news organizations focus on this new asset class in a new way, we can’t stress enough how important it is to understand that investing in cryptography isn’t exempt from Armstrong wrote in a blog post this week, published just before the San Francisco-based company revealed that it has confidentially submitted an expected initial public offering (IPO) to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States. United States.
Coinbase is jumping on the IPO bandwagon at a time when other tech companies, such as AirBnB and DoorDash, are debuting with very high ratings. When Coinbase, which makes money through commissions related to customer transactions, last raised funds in 2018, it was valued at $ 8 billion.
“Crypto can be a class of volatile assets,” Armstrong added. “Often more than the types of traditional financial instruments that most investors are used to. For example, this means that the market can move in any direction much faster than equity markets.”
The price of bitcoin, after starting around $ 7,000 a year, fell to less than $ 4,000 in March, as the coronavirus pandemic caused markets to fall. It quickly bounced back to $ 10,000 and began to climb to an all-time high from 2017 in October.
Rising bitcoin prices have accelerated in recent months as a growing number of high-profile investors call Bitcoin a possible inflation hedge and some of Wall Streets’ largest banks change their tune. on the asset class of the digital record.
“Like all asset classes, crypto markets will rise and fall over time,” Armstrong wrote, noting the 2017 Bitcoin bubble that saw the price of bitcoin rise from less than $ 1,000 in the beginning year to about $ 20,000 to fall back to $ 3,000 in 2018.
“From time to time we will see strong market concentrations where prices will rise rapidly and aggressively. While we are always happy to see increasing interest in cryptography, it is also important to note that it is not just a time of high volume, but also of prices. volatility “.
The price of bitcoin has risen 5% in the last 24 hours, which has led to an increase in the week … [+]
Coinbase
Despite these warnings, the bitcoin and cryptocurrency community has celebrated the return of the price of bitcoin to its all-time highs, and many long-term cryptocurrency investors feel vindicated after three years out of the cold.
“We are now officially in unfamiliar territory,” Ian Balina, executive director of Washington DC-based bitcoin and cryptocurrency data company Token Metrics, said in an email, adding that he believes the price of bitcoin could rise. to about $ 50,000 in the next few years.
“I think the low $ 20,000 is just the beginning,” said JP Thieriot, executive director of bitcoin-based bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange Uphold, in comments sent by email.
“This upward trend is likely to continue over the coming months as investors continue to buy consumer-style digital platforms that offer greater access to these markets than traditional financial service providers.”