[2017-12-24] ET: Bitcoin and friends offer 1,000 ways to lose your money

Bitcoin and friends offer 1,000 ways to lose your money

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/news/view-bitcoin-and-friends-offer-1000-ways-to-lose-your-money/articleshow/62230484.cms

There are 1,036 virtual currencies out there, from Bitcoin to -- no joke -- BigBoobsCoin. The price of almost every single one was down Friday morning. Bitcoin, the one that kicked off the whole shebang with its rigid algorithm to cap supply, hit its lowest point in two weeks before climbing back to about $14,000.

Is this the epic bursting of the bubble the bears have been waiting for? Not yet. The selloff certainly looks like a reversal of the herd buy-in that hit fever pitch this year. But, in absolute price terms, cryptocurrencies are only looking very marginally less insane.

Even after sinking 35 per cent from a record high, Bitcoin is still 1,200 per cent higher than where it was at the end of 2016. And corrections are common in this market. Bitcoin dropped 13 per cent in one day just three months ago, and 22 per cent in one day back in 2015.