And we’re back. It looked on Friday as though the much-discussed bitcoin bubble was bursting spectacularly, with the currency sliding below $3,000 — now it’s back to almost $4,000.
The cryptocurrency rallied 5.2 per cent on Monday to $3,853, a rise of close to 30 per cent from the low of $2,972 struck at the end of last week, Reuters data show.
Traders in the hyper-volatile asset seem to have shrugged off plans announced last week for China’s three main bitcoin exchanges to halt trading amid a regulatory crackdown in one of the biggest markets for cryptocurrency.
The dramatic and difficult-to-predict moves have underscored once again the debate over whether bitcoin will ever rise to the status of a proper currency, or if it will remain mostly in the purview of a smaller niche, from black markets to privacy advocates.
Still, bitcoin is becoming difficult for managers to ignore given its dazzling performance this year that has beaten just about every other asset class.