YIBADA

Bitcoin reaches two-year high because of impending halving of supply in July

| Jun 13, 2016 10:10 AM EDT

Bitcoin Wallet

Bitcoin seems to be picking up as it surges to a two-year high despite the analysts' expectations of the supply declining in July.

The popular cryptocurrency has reached up to $696.5 in price on Monday in Hong Kong. Miners have tried to avoid Bitcoin when it started to slump down because of the increase in the difficulty of mining the cryptocurrency but the price is now spiking thanks to investors and banks.

Bitcoin's price on Monday is set to be the highest since February 2014. It has moved up from Friday's $689.23 in HongKong, Bloomberg has learned.

Cryptocurrency has boomed in popularity several years ago because of the potential it had for earning money by just making use of a computer's computing power. Video cards were the main miners before ASIC mining machines were introduced in the market.

However, the increased number of criminals using the cryptocurrency for transactions in the Dark Web has garnered the attention of authorities and governments. The increased scrutiny may have scared off some investors and miners.

Bitcoin supply will be halved starting next month because of the code written inside the cryptocurrency that regulates the amount that can be produced or mined in its lifetime, Coindesk reported. The process is essential for the cryptocurrency and it is the equivalent to preventing the printing of endless money which could depreciate the value quickly over time.

OKCoin chief strategy officer Jack C. Liu said that the increased attention from banks and venture capitalists have revived Bitcoin from its recent slump in value. Since the supply will be essentially halved, the value is expected to increase as well.

The cryptocurrency has dipped into the $200 range in January 2015. It was once priced at $1000 in 2013 when it was just starting out to be a popular way of earning money online.

Investments from startups that aimed to commercialize Bitcoin blockchains has reached up to $1.1 billion in the first quarter of 2016 alone. The halving of the Bitcoin supply can also attract more venture capitalists and investors which could continuously increase its value again over the following months.

Related News

Most Popular

EDITOR'S PICK