The price of Bitcoin, the most popular digital crytpo-currency, has skyrocketed this year.According to Coindesk, bitcoins are currently trading for $2,483 per coin.The price is an all-time record, and the remarkable valuation blows earlier price spikes out of the water.Bitcoins have more than doubled since the beginning of 2017, when they hovered around $1,000 per coin.Bitcoin broke the $2,000-per-coin barrier on Saturday.The run-up has led to increased interest in lesser-known digital currencies, like Etherium and Ripple.Ethereum, which is backed by large companies working on blockchain projects, has jumped in value from $8.24 at the beginning of the year to $203.30, according to CNBC.Ethereum prices began climbing in March, around the time when Bitcoin investors started "getting jittery" about whether Bitcoin software would be able to handle the increased level of transactions.Looking at the market capitalization for all cryptocurrencies, Techcrunch notes that Bitcoin now makes up just 47 percent of the total market value.

Guessing what's behind the price increase is inevitably speculative.CBS news quotes market watchers who think digital currency value is being pushed up by economic instability in places like Russia, Nigeria, and South Korea.litecoin live rateAt Fortune, Jeff John Roberts argues that the mainstreaming of Bitcoin means that "investors see it as a new asset class" and are backing hedge funds to acquire it.bitcoin 32bit vs 64bitRegulators in Japan and China have taken steps recently to formalize trading in Bitcoins, which has increased investment from Asia.litecoin ghsPrice run-ups like this lead to "if only" type of thinking.bitcoin bowl hotelMarketwatch published one portfolio manager's "regret" chart, showing that an investment of $1,000 USD in Bitcoin in July 2010 would be worth more than $35 million today.ethereum miner pc

A $1,000 investment in a fund tied to the S&P 500 index would be worth around $2,500.The price of Bitcoin has been highly volatile over the years, and it hasn't just moved in one direction.Bitcoins jumped to nearly $1,000 each in late 2013, but then plummeted in value, taking more than three years to rise back to that price point.litecoin storage2017 is certainly a heady year for Bitcoin fans, but whether the crypto-currency gains widespread acceptance or ends up more like the 17th century Dutch tulip bubble, remains to be seen.bitcoin is not a ponzi schemeShare The price of bitcoin surged to over $1,171 on Thursday, a surge that puts it above the previous all-time high of $1,165.89 set Nov.bitcoin gbp graphThe digital currency’s price has been above $1,000 for nearly two months — its longest ever streak north of that milestone — and Thursday’s surge means the price has risen 175 percent over the past year.bitcoin bet planet money

Divining and predicting exactly what drives bitcoin’s price fluctuations involves so many variables that it leaves even professional experts making guesses.The last time it spiked this high was late 2013 immediately following the closure of Silk Road, the dark net black market that helped bring the cryptocurrency to mainstream news outlets.The price wobbled wildly then and cratered to as low as $209 soon after.It’s crept up ever since.Signs point to this spike being driven by much broader market forces.Although the currency has been widely adopted by cybercriminals and mischief-makers as their currency of choice, companies like WordPress, Microsoft and Subway accept it, and financial giants are reportedly closely examining the technology for their own use.Reports from CoinDesk, a leading cryptocurrency news website, pointed to upcoming potential American political wins for bitcoin including a coming SEC decision on the Winklevoss twins’ ETF that may attract a range of new investors.

Four years after the original filing, the SEC’s decision will be made public by March 11.You can follow the live price of bitcoin at CoinDesk’s price index chart.Does the price really matter?It’s exciting, it grabs headlines and it can mean an awful lot for short term movers.But Jerry Brito, the executive director of the cryptocurrency research institution Coin Center, focuses on the long term.From that perspectives, spikes and dives mean less.“The Googles and Facebooks of Bitcoin–the killer apps that will make the technology indispensable for ordinary users–may not come for another 5 years,” Brito said in 2015 following a price drop that year.Coin Center told CyberScoop that their perspective remains unchanged: They’re looking five to 10 years to the future, not to today’s price changes.Reflecting on the 2015 flash-crash, Brito advised Bitcoin watchers to not “worry so much.” In the face of the current surge, Brito’s advice would be to not get too excited.Just don’t tell that to the party going on in reddit’s /r/Bitcoin community.

-In this Story- bitcoin, CoinDesk, financialLike TIME on Facebook for more breaking news and current events from around the globe!The value of Bitcoin skyrocketed Monday, coinciding with Senate hearings into the regulatory environment surrounding the virtual online currency.As of 7:04 p.m.the Coindesk Bitcoin Price Index valued the currency at 1 Bitcoin to $675.61, an increase of more than 50 times its value 12 months ago.As recently as late October, Bitcoin was valued at less than $200.The dramatic increase in price highlights the volatility of the stateless, regulation-averse, encryption-based currency.It also coincided with hearings at the Senate Homeland Security Committee, in which legislators, regulators, law enforcement and interest groups grappled with how to deal with the new currency.During Monday’s hearing, Bitcoin was primarily characterized as a new technological frontier for criminal activity in need of regulatory innovation.“Regulation both at home and abroad is going to catch up.

Because it has to,” said Jennifer Shasky Calvary, director of FinCEN, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman lauded the efforts of law enforcement to bring down the illicit online networks—like the contraband marketplace Silk Road—that run on Bitcoin, saying big busts show that Bitcoin “is not in fact anonymous and it is not in fact immune to investigation.And that is an important message to send.” Whatever course the regulators take, it’s clear this is just the beginning.For every weakness revealed by recent events like the bust of the online contraband marketplace Silk Road, there is an anecdote pointing to what a mammoth task the U.S.government faces as it seeks to impose a regulatory regime on the so-called “Dark Web.” Not long after it was shutdown, for example, the Silk Road was reborn online, an apt illustration of the game of whack-a-mole that awaits law enforcement on the dark web.On the other hand, as George Mason U. law professor Jerry Brito noted at Monday’s hearing, virtual currencies are not particularly new.