The most famous of the crypto-currency is currently the subject of intense speculation (Photo Justin TALLIS. AFP)
Crash pure and hard? Or correction transient of a virtual currency to be erratic? The bitcoin went down dramatically Friday, almost as abruptly as it has flamed out in recent weeks, without that the financial experts do not know how to really explain it.
The most famous of the cryptomonnaies was quoted on Friday at around 10.55 am GMT around 14.300 dollar, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, while on Monday it still seemed to be very close to touching the $ 20,000.
The bitcoin, which did not end in flame after starting 2017 around 1,000 dollars, has lost about a quarter of its value in a week. Or the equivalent of two times the market capitalization of The l’oréal group, for example.
The correction is particularly brutal, even for a virtual currency used to variations in the strong, and escaping the monetary frameworks in the traditional sense.
Unlike the dollar or euro, bitcoin is not issued by central Banks, but “mined”, or created, in a decentralized manner by computers using complex algorithms to produce a chain of blocks of transactions are coded and authenticated (technology called “the blockchain”).
– The glas-t-it sounded? –
To Neil Wilson, the london-based company, ETX Capital, “difficult to know if the death knell has already rung out”.
These past few weeks have brought almost as much good as bad news for bitcoin.
He has certainly earned some legitimacy with the launch in the United States instrument hedge based on the bitcoin, by operators recognized. In addition, according to Bloomberg, the banking giant Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) would be planning to launch in the “trading” of bitcoins, which would be, according to the criteria of the world of finance, a kind of consecration.
But the bitcoin accused of serving to all kinds of illegal traffics, remains highly criticized.
On Wednesday, his star had begun to fade after information of hacking a platform for the exchange of cryptomonnaies in South Korea, Youbit. And Thursday, Haruhiko Kuroda, governor of the Bank of Japan, big market for bitcoin, had found the outbreak of the current “abnormal”. Besides the rumors the recurrent creation of cryptomonnaies competitive and rivalries between “minors”.
For the experts, nothing of all this is not enough, however, to explain its precipitous fall.
“It seems that it is time for investors to take their profits and spend for Christmas”, simply notes Neil Wilson.
It is not really possible to buy her gifts, or her turkey in bitcoins, including the commercial use remains very marginal. To spend bitcoins, it must therefore exchange them for another currency, which reduces the course.
– “The hand in the bag” –
Alexandre Baradez, an analyst for IG France, finds “no special explanation” in the fall, and remember that the price of bitcoin has always been erratic. Its volatility is 20 times higher than the volatility of euro/dollar”, emphasizes the expert.
It also reminds us that the cryptomonnaie remains a small market relative to other major currencies: it is enough that a few big fish will sell for as the current picks up.
According to Stephen Innes, head of trade in Asia-Pacific at OANDA, the investors of the bitcoin face “back on earth”.
“A tremendous demand” for a limited availability “has led investors and inexperienced to be taken hand in the bag”, he says.
Rebecca O’keeffe at Interactive Investor, waiting to see if the bitcoin bounces back, or if it deflates for good for the benefit “of other virtual currencies less expensive”.
The “return to earth” mentioned above could, however, have its limits.
Beyond bitcoin, the enthusiasm for the cryptomonnaies and computer technology that serves as its basis, the “blockchain”, remains in effect very strong, not to say irrational.
The mere fact that the u.s. merchant iced tea Long Island Tea Corp. to change its name to “the Long Blockchain Corp.”, for example, has enough for its action to take off of nearly 200% on Thursday on Wall Street.
