Of all the start-up initiatives over the last decade that can technically be classed under the FinTech (financial technology) umbrella, the one that has received the most attention—and the one that has been surrounded by the most controversy—is bitcoin. The growth in the use of the cryptocurrency has been phenomenal, with 2015 seeing the number of bitcoin transactions per day growing by 150 percent, and the total number of bitcoins in circulation increasing by a solid 10 percent across the 12 months. As of the end of 2015, around 15 million bitcoins were in circulation with a total market value of more than $6 billion.
While its popularity has risen, however, its reputation has suffered. For one, bitcoin’s market price has been hugely volatile, with 450-percent price spikes just a few years ago being recorded:
http://internationalbanker.com/finance/blockchain-disrupting-finance-industry/
