Bitcoin soars to record $34,000, but dips $5,000 in 24 hours

Written by Ruby Hinchliffe
4th January 2021

The value of Bitcoin surged above $34,000 yesterday for the first time, but the volatile cryptocurrency has since seen its value decline.

At 10:00AM today, Bitcoin still sat above $30,000, having seen its value drop $4,000 in less than 24 hours.

Bitcoin hit lows of around $18,700 in early December, meaning its $34,000 high was just $3,000 off doubling its value in a month

Its value continued to decline to around $29,000 this morning, before bouncing back above $30,000 by 11:00AM.

The sharp dip from such a peak comes just a day after Bitcoin investors argued the peak was in line with the cryptocurrency’s pattern of “consistent increase[s]”.

Marcus Swanepoel, CEO of London crypto platform Luno, tells the Financial Times the currency was enjoying “a consistent increase, rather than one sharp spike”.

This analysis still holds some weight, as Bitcoin’s value manages to recover its $30,000 value.

Nearly doubled value in a month

Bitcoin hit lows of around $18,700 in early December, meaning its $34,000 high was just $3,000 off doubling its value in a month – a testament to just how volatile the currency can be.

It delivered a more than 300% gain last year, according to Reuters. And its value has gained more than 10% in just the first few days of January.

$100,000 per coin one day?

Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of global blockchain project Chainlink, tells Reuters “it’s very likely that the asset will eventually pass $100,000 per coin”.

“People have been steadily losing faith in their government currencies for years, and the monetary policies resulting from the economic impact of the coronavirus have only accelerated this decline.”

Companies are investing more in infrastructure to facilitate Bitcoin transactions for everyday use, prompting investors to give cryptocurrencies more credence.

PayPal’s latest wallet feature will allow US users to buy, sell and store a host of cryptocurrencies. In October, Bloomberg reported that PayPal is currently weighing up acquisitions in the cryptocurrency space.

It was allegedly eying up Bitcoin custodian BitGo, but these talks ended in December, according to CoinDesk.

Standard Chartered’s venture arm is also launching a crypto custodian platform called Zodia in the UK.

Though institutional investors are becoming more interested in crypto, they still only account for 9% of investments in the asset today. A statistic the bank is likely hoping to change.