Bitcoin collapses by up to 8,000 dollars

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An extreme price rise is followed by an equally severe slump: Bitcoin temporarily crashed to around $ 30,000 after reaching a record high of almost $ 42,000 at the end of last week.

In the course of Monday alone, the cryptocurrency lost up to $ 8,000 in value.

Most recently, a Bitcoin on the Bitstamp trading platform cost around $ 33,000.

As a result of the crash, the cumulative market volume of all currently around 8,225 digital currencies fell below one trillion dollars.

Last week, the mark was exceeded for the first time.

"The attack of weakness again illustrates the high susceptibility of the cryptocurrency to fluctuations," commented Bitcoin expert Timo Emden from Emden Research on the market situation.

Critics repeatedly emphasize that this fickleness disqualifies digital currencies for investment and even more so for payment purposes.

There is also the allegation that internet currencies could be misused for criminal purposes due to their high anonymity.

According to market observers, the reasons for the crash are the rising dollar and the growing yields on US government bonds.

Investors have also used the record high of Bitcoin to sell part of their investments and thus take profits.

The crisis currency gold also reacted with losses to the recent rise of the dollar;

however, the losses here were significantly smaller.

In the medium term, the Bitcoin price could pick up again.

According to the US investment bank JP Morgan, numerous investors are switching from gold to Bitcoin.

JP Morgan announced a price target of around $ 150,000 in the first week of January.

But the price or limit of the digital currency is limited.

One of the limiting factors is the high energy consumption of Bitcoin production.

In any case, 2021 could be the year in which digital currencies also reach normal bank customers, not least because of the pandemic: First, it is fueling the trend towards cashless payments;

secondly, it is making crypto assets attractive as an investment for more and more large investors.

Bitcoins were among the most lucrative investments in the Corona year.

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ssu / dpa