Keeping Up With Bitcoin, The Scams & The Extreme Predictions
Bitcoin was the talk of the town a couple of years back but recently, it has been in the news for some bad and some good news.
What’s New In The Bitcoin Space?
Yesterday, the price of bitcoin climbed above $10,000 for the first time since June 10. Even though it’s not clear what caused this rally, this came as a sweet surprise for all those who had bought Bitcoin and were waiting for a miracle to happen.
However, this price is nowhere near the all-time high of $20,089, which was hit by the cryptocurrency on December 17, 2017. But we also have to notice that this hasn’t disheartened any Bitcoin fans.
A total of 298,422 transactions were concluded yesterday and Bitcoin now commands 63% of the total crypto market.
The Scams
Unless you have been living under the rock, you would have definitely heard about the Bitcoin scam which happened via Twitter. Last week, Twitter accounts of big names such as former US President Barack Obama, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mike Bloomberg, Joe Biden, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Elon Musk among others were hacked. After hacking these accounts, hackers sent fake tweets offering $2000 for every $1000 sent to an anonymous Bitcoin address.
A message sent from Elon Musk’s account said, “All bitcoins sent to my address below will be sent back double the amount. If you sent $1,000, I will send back $2,000.” Over 373 users fell prey to the scam globally and lost an estimated ₹89 lakh before Twitter stepped in to remove the tweets.
Two days back, Indian YouTuber Carry Minati’s channel ‘Carry is Live’ was hacked and the hacker apparently ran a bitcoin scam, asking people to donate to a particular account. The hacker live-streamed 2 videos, seeking Bitcoin and Ethereum. The first video claimed giving free Bitcoin and Ethereum. So, we can say that this hack also happened in a similar way to the Twitter hack.
Staying Strong
Cryptocurrency trading is not completely reliable because it is not governed by any institution and maybe, that is why it became very popular in a short amount of time. Also, since it isn’t governed by any government body, it rallied to roof breaking highs, making thousands of people as millionaires in the process. This is what pushes people to buy cryptocurrencies because we never know when the next rally might come.
And it is not just investors but even experts are expecting Bitcoin to go up. In a note published by Bloomberg last month, it said, “Bitcoin will approach the record high of about $20,000 this year, in our view, if it follows 2016’s trend.” The co-founder of Nexo, the leading regulated financial institution for digital assets, Antoni Trenchev, went to a whole new level and told Bloomberg, that Bitcoin price could go up to $50,000 by the end of 2020.
There is a high probability that the Bitcoin prices will continue to surge despite the hacks and scams. As long as it stays unregulated and makes people millionaires overnight, who wouldn’t want a piece of that dream?
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