[2017-12-15] Bitcoin hits new record high as warnings grow louder

[CryptoBry]

Is Bitcoin the biggest bubble since the Dutch Tulip Mania? Forbes Media editor-in-chief Steve Forbes and Layfield Report CEO John Layfield discuss bitcoin, the somewhat-controversial but increasingly popular cryptocurrency, and whether its skyrocketing price is heading toward a bubble burst.

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.

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[MoonJeina]

The only thing that worries me in this case is that the value is increasing very fastly . Not that it cannot or should not attain the mark of $20000 .
With the growing market cap it becomes very certain that the value will also increase but in this case the analysts start considering it a bubble .
What exactly is the definition of a bubble ? I haven't seen a a bubble lasting for so many years . Bitcoin is at its peak of getting the popularity and investments that is why it is getting such massive value . The only thing that i could mend here is that it would be better if it grows rather gradually .                           

[kueyen]

This "bubble" thing may eventually become a self fulfilling prophecy. But it seems to me that there is real value behind cryptos, and the only reason why people claim it to be a bubble is the very fast price increase. But other than that, are there really any indicators towards it being a bubble?

[btcbtq]

For the past five years Bitcoin has rallied in Q4 then dipped in Q1. The market cap is still small which means growth is sustainable. The egg hasn't hatchet, yet.

[Carlton Banks]

If Bitcoin wasn't useful or being used, I could understand the bubble aspersions.

But Bitcoin is setting another record that few are talking about: the daily number of transactions, average transaction count per block, USD transaction volume and basically every measure of the Bitcoin network's usage capacity are setting new all-time records.


The Bitcoin price is responding exactly how one might expect therefore: like a goldrush. People lose money in that kind of environment, sure, but in general, it benefits most people. Anyone adopting the pretense of "keeping investors safe" is only serving to keep people safe from the opportunity on hand.

[richardsNY]

How are we supposed to take bubble warnings seriously when it started even under the $1000 level? I can somewhat admit that the price might be overbought at current levels, but not more than that. Speculation has always been part of Bitcoin, and in current times it isn't anything different. More people buy themselves into Bitcoin results in a higher price, it's as simple as that. At the end of the day, we can only say whether or not it's really a bubble, when we are a good number of months away from now with the price still being at current levels or higher, or indeed as the speculation goes, lower -- you don't know whether or not we have been forming a bubble until the bubble pops.

[darkangel11]

For the past five years Bitcoin has rallied in Q4 then dipped in Q1. The market cap is still small which means growth is sustainable. The egg hasn't hatchet, yet.

I always laugh when people mention waves and levels. This year there's been so many levels from which we were supposed to start crashing and BTC has ignored them all.
As for the bubble predictions, I haven't seen the Internet bubble burst and it has been on the rise for decades.
IMO we haven't seen the top yet. I'm not sure there even is a top.

[Xavofat]

But Bitcoin is setting another record that few are talking about: the daily number of transactions

Price increase over the last six months: 685% (based on coinmarketcap data from 2261 USD at June 15th to 17752 today).
Increase in the number of confirmed transactions over the last six months: About 50% (based on blockchain.info data from 329229 on June 15th to 490644 today).

Not very exact to just take one day, but it's a rough estimate at least.  The multiple by which the Bitcoin price has increased over that time has been far higher than the increase in transaction volume, and the trading volume is only indicative of increased speculation, not necessarily increased usage.

It's great that BTC is performing well in some regards - I'd just like for people who decide to use BTC at this point (when the price appears to be unusually high) to be careful and avoid putting in money that they can't afford to lose.  Because losing a large chunk of it is quite an imminent possibility.

The prospect of something being a bubble does not mean that it's worthless - actually, a bubble could have quite a high intrinsic value.