According to the latest finance news, Bitcoin was one of the most trending searches on Google this year.  This news itself indicates demand for knowledge related to Bitcoins and cryptocurrencies worldwide. Bitcoin first came out in 2010 and its price also was fixed in the same year at around 1 cent. But, as of recent financial news, the price of this coin is now more than USD 16,000! (Kharif, 2017)

A currency which was earlier viewed to fill the pockets of the uber-wealthy, drug dealers, mafias and those dealing with black money, Bitcoins are now viewed as a prime source of investment by even the common man. And all this has been possible due to growing interest in this currency along with its ever-rising price.

Bitcoin prices have experienced a surge in 2017 due to several reasons such as increase in demand, improvement in transaction processes and improvement in reputation.

Many have termed cryptocurrencies as a kind of financial bubble that may burst at any time; and if it does, the entire worldwide economy could be highly affected in a negative manner. But, who knows, it also might be a stepping stone towards cryptocurrencies to go mainstream in the future, as the world heads for a paperless economy.

The following points explain some more details about the rise of Bitcoin prices and what we may expect in the next few years.

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  1. Improvement in Reputation

In its prime years, bitcoin was surely used by drug dealers, peddlers and all sorts of people operating dark and shady businesses. The reason for this involved the anonymity offered by this currency. But, many technology and financial firms became interested in the blockchain processes that operate bitcoin transactions. This resulted in a decrease of its dark side by some degree, after which others around the globe became introduced to this currency. Thus, the currency gradually started gaining more recognition. And of course what happens when something starts gaining attention? Its value starts to increase! In this way, improvement in reputation is one of the main reasons for its rise.

2. A New Way of Transactions

There are several Bitcoin users around the world who see this currency as a new way of doing business. There are several reasons for this: lower costs without a central middleman, heavy investments by banks and stock exchanges, etc. And this indicates that more is the number of people investing in a currency, more is its demand, thus contributing towards its positive growth (Heath, 2017). With the advent of blockchain processes for transacting Bitcoins, there also has been a rise in start-ups operating this process. All this combined with an inherent rise in interests amongst the global crowd for cryptocurrencies has lead to an increase in its price!

3. A New Challenge

Often more than others there are some people who like to invest in new and challenging scenarios just to see if it works; to see if their judgement proved themselves right as against to the risk backfiring. And Bitcoin certainly is one of these scenarios wherein some might consider it as a challenge to invest in and see how it all goes. Thus, new investors, high expectation and improved investments spread amongst those who want to get involved with the newest thing on the block are all tiny factors associated with this challenging cryptocurrency that has caused its rise.

Even though there might be several thousand people around the world who are completely into this currency, there still are others who want to enter the gameplay. But, for those curious souls who wish to start their journey in Bitcoins… always be cautious as the world of cryptocurrencies is still not quite secure!

For more business finance news, keep reading iT Munch.

Sources:

  1. Kharif O. (2017), “All You Need to Know About Bitcoin’s Rise, From $0.01 to $15,000” [online] available from: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-01/understanding-bitcoin-s-rise-0-01-to-11-000-quicktake-q-a [accessed December 2017]
  2. Heath T. (2017), “Bitcoin is going mainstream. Here is what you should know about it” [online] available from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/get-there/wp/2017/12/04/bitcoin-is-going-mainstream-here-is-what-you-should-know-about-it/?utm_term=.c908eea3b748 [accessed December 2017]