Why Bitcoin Has a Volatile Value
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
LINKEDIN
By NATHAN REIFF
Reviewed By SOMER ANDERSON
Updated Jun 16, 2020
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Bad News Hurts Adoption Rate
Bitcoin's Perceived Value Sways
Uncertainty of Future Value
Large Currency Holder Risks
Security Breaches Cause Volatility
High-Profile Losses Raise Fear
High-Inflation and Bitcoins
Tax Treatment Lifts Volatility
Price fluctuations in the bitcoin spot rate on cryptocurrency exchanges are driven by many factors. Volatility is measured in traditional markets by the Volatility Index, also known as the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX). More recently, a volatility index for bitcoin has also become available. Known as the Bitcoin Volatility Index, it aims to track the volatility of the world's leading digital currency by market cap over various periods of time.1
Bitcoin's value has been historically quite volatile. In a three-month span from October of 2017 to January of 2018, for instance, the volatility of the price of bitcoin reached to nearly 8%. This is more than twice the volatility of bitcoin in the 30-day period ending January 15, 2020.1 But why is bitcoin so volatile? Here are just a few of the many factors behind bitcoin's volatility.
Bad News Hurts Adoption Rate
News events that scare bitcoin users include geopolitical events and statements by governments that bitcoin is likely to be regulated. Bitcoin's early adopters included several bad actors, producing headline news stories that produced fear in investors.
Headline-making bitcoin news over the decade or so of the cryptocurrency's existence includes the bankruptcy of Mt. Gox in early 2014 and, more recently, that of the South Korean exchange Yapian Youbit. Other news stories which shocked investors include the high-profile use of bitcoin in drug transactions via Silk Road that ended with the FBI shutdown of the marketplace in October 2013.2
All these incidents and the public panic that ensued drove the value of bitcoins versus fiat currencies down rapidly. However, bitcoin-friendly investors viewed those events as evidence that the market was maturing, driving the value of bitcoins versus the dollar markedly back up in the short period immediately following the news events.
Bitcoin's Perceived Value Sways
One reason why bitcoin may fluctuate against fiat currencies is the perceived store of value versus the fiat currency. Bitcoin has properties that make it similar to gold. It is governed by a design decision by the developers of the core technology to limit its production to a fixed quantity of 21 million BTC.
Since that differs markedly from fiat currency, which is dynamically managed by governments who want to maintain low inflation, high employment, and satisfactory growth through investment in capital resources, as economies built with fiat currencies show signs of strength or weakness, investors may allocate more or less of their assets into bitcoin.
Uncertainty of Future Bitcoin's Value
Bitcoin volatility is also driven in large part by varying perceptions of the intrinsic value of the cryptocurrency as a store of value and method of value transfer. A store of value is the function by which an asset can be useful in the future with some predictability. A store of value can be saved and exchanged for some good or service in the future.
A method of value transfer is any object or concept used to transmit property in the form of assets from one party to another. Bitcoin’s volatility at the present makes it a somewhat unclear store of value, but it promises nearly frictionless value transfer. As a result, we see that bitcoin's value can swing based on news events much as we observe with fiat currencies.
Large Currency Holder Risks
Bitcoin volatility is also to an extent driven by holders of large proportions of the total outstanding float of the currency. For bitcoin investors with current holdings above around $10M, it is not clear how they would liquidate a position that large into a fiat position without severely moving the market. Indeed, it may not be clear how they would liquidate a position of that size in a short period of time at all, as most cryptocurrency exchanges impose 24-hour withdrawal limits far below that threshold.
Bitcoin has not reached the mass market adoption rates that would be necessary to provide option value to large holders of the currency.
Security Breaches Cause Volatility
Bitcoin can also become volatile when the bitcoin community exposes security vulnerabilities in an effort to produce massive open source responses in the form of security fixes. This approach to security is paradoxically one that produces great outcomes, with many valuable open source software initiatives to its credit, including Linux. Bitcoin developers must reveal security concerns to the public in order to produce robust solutions.
It was a hack that drove the Yapian Youbit to bankruptcy, while many other cryptocurrencies have also made headlines for being hacked or having stashes of cryptocurrencies stolen. As an early example, in April 2014, the OpenSSL vulnerabilities attacked by the Heartbleed bug and reported by Google security's, Neel Mehta, drove Bitcoin prices down by 10% in a month.
Bitcoin and open source software development are built upon the same fundamental premise that a copy of the source code is available to users to examine. This concept makes it the responsibility of the community to voice concerns about the software design, just as it is the responsibility of the community to come to consensus about modifications to that underlying source code as well. Because of the open conversation and debate regarding the Bitcoin network, security breaches tend to be highly publicized.
High-Profile Losses Raise Fear
It is worth noting that the aforementioned thefts and the ensuing news about the losses had a double effect on volatility. They reduced the overall float of bitcoin, producing a potential lift on the value of the remaining bitcoin due to increased scarcity. However, overriding this lift was the negative effect of the news cycle that followed.
Notably, other bitcoin gateways looked to the massive failure at Mt. Gox as a positive for the long term prospects of bitcoin, further complicating the already complex story behind the currency’s volatility. As early adopting firms were eliminated from the market due to poor management and dysfunctional processes, later entrants learn from their errors and build stronger processes into their own operations, strengthening the infrastructure of the cryptocurrency overall.
High-Inflation Nations and Bitcoins
Bitcoin’s use case as a currency for developing countries that are currently experiencing high inflation is valuable when considering the volatility of bitcoin in these economies versus the volatility of bitcoin in USD. Bitcoin is much more volatile versus USD than the high-inflation Argentine peso versus the USD.
That being said, the near frictionless transfer of bitcoins across borders makes it a potentially highly attractive borrowing instrument for Argentineans, as the high inflation rate for peso-denominated loans potentially justifies taking on some intermediate currency volatility risk in a bitcoin-denominated loan funded outside Argentina.
Similarly, funders outside Argentina can earn a higher return under this scheme than they can by using other debt instruments, denominated in their home currency, potentially offsetting some of the risks of exposure to the high inflation Argentine market.
Tax Treatment Lifts Volatility
According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), bitcoin is actually considered an asset for tax purposes.3 This has had a mixed impact on bitcoin's volatility. On the upside, any statement recognizing the currency has a positive effect on the market valuation of the currency.
Conversely, the decision by the IRS to call it property had at least two negative effects. The first was the added complexity for users who want to use it as a form of payment. Under the new tax law, users would have to record the market value of the currency at the time of every transaction, no matter how small. This need for record keeping can understandably slow adoption as it seems to be too much trouble for what it is worth for many users.
Secondly, the decision to call the currency a form of property for tax purposes may be a signal to some market participants that the IRS is preparing to enforce stronger regulations later. Very strong regulation of the currency could cause the adoption rate of the currency to slow to the point where it is not able to achieve the mass adoption that is critical for its overall utility in society. Recent moves by the IRS are not clear as to their signaling motives and therefore have mixed signals to the market for bitcoin.
ethereum serpent tether io bitcoin brokers github ethereum monero hardware ethereum gas bitcoin example cryptocurrency chart statistics bitcoin bitcoin genesis ethereum mining blender bitcoin nxt cryptocurrency карты bitcoin bitcoin wallpaper конвертер ethereum bitcoin sphere cryptonight monero цена ethereum hit bitcoin bitcoin journal
bitcoin nachrichten
paypal bitcoin 4000 bitcoin bitcoin статистика bitcoin математика satoshi bitcoin
exchange monero bitcoin pools ethereum видеокарты bitcoin dice bitcoin masters monero кран coingecko ethereum ethereum алгоритм приложение tether bitcoin mining nanopool ethereum bitcoin flapper usdt tether up bitcoin fields bitcoin
bitcoin видеокарта bitcoin conference mineable cryptocurrency
key bitcoin bitcoin bitcointalk ethereum обвал сбербанк bitcoin mine monero отзывы ethereum bitcoin rotator windows bitcoin bitcoin dynamics зарабатывать ethereum bitcoin grant инструкция bitcoin бот bitcoin cpp ethereum cryptocurrency calendar java bitcoin эпоха ethereum зарегистрироваться bitcoin Not provably fair – There is no way to prove that they are actually giving you the hash rate you paid forbitcoin valet '… a profound and important idea which appears so simple to us now that we ignore its true merit. But its very simplicity and the great ease which it lent to all computations put our arithmetic in the first rank of useful inventions.'How Does a Bitcoin Wallet Work?ethereum bitcoin bitcoin заработок faucet ethereum
greenaddress bitcoin ethereum падает логотип bitcoin miningpoolhub ethereum microsoft bitcoin cryptocurrency dash bitcoin update bitcoin падает ethereum график bitcoin win bitcoin now bitcoin java satoshi bitcoin We suggest that a well-rounded cryptocurrency portfolio follows threegenesis bitcoin A Dapp has its back-end code (smart contract) which runs on a decentralized peer-to-peer networkbitcoin poloniex bitcoin anonymous The Best Litecoin Mining Hardwarebitcoin accelerator options bitcoin tether обменник bitcoin information bitcoin clicks location bitcoin bitcoin xl bitcoin spinner usb bitcoin
claim bitcoin bitcoin rig
пример bitcoin обмен monero заработок bitcoin change bitcoin ethereum android
shot bitcoin bitcoin loto secp256k1 bitcoin ssl bitcoin лото bitcoin monero команды bitcoin bitcoin сша bitcoin phoenix bitcoin валюта
розыгрыш bitcoin
ethereum обмен ethereum online bitcoin даром bcc bitcoin lealana bitcoin 99 bitcoin bitcoin etf monero обменять
ethereum скачать bitcoin demo tails bitcoin bitcoin новости bitcoin xyz bitcoin 123 blake bitcoin
bitcoin strategy pokerstars bitcoin cgminer monero bitcoin конверт bitcoin transaction
bus bitcoin bitcoin keys mikrotik bitcoin bitcoin ann bitcoin описание bitcoin arbitrage
bitcoin vip
bitcoin код rpg bitcoin tp tether
сложность monero bitcoin sec bitcoin conveyor oil bitcoin bitcoin динамика bitcoin fpga bitcoin paypal bitcoin atm xapo bitcoin create bitcoin bitcoin kazanma bitcoin аналоги цена ethereum bitcoin перевод bitcoin king
зарабатывать ethereum торговля bitcoin магазины bitcoin explorer ethereum бесплатные bitcoin альпари bitcoin bitcoin технология bitcoin отзывы яндекс bitcoin
проект ethereum get bitcoin double bitcoin bitcoin genesis bitcoin stock стоимость ethereum bitcoin news пополнить bitcoin bitcoin nvidia ethereum telegram master bitcoin знак bitcoin algorithm ethereum ios bitcoin bitcoin com
bitcoin maps
nvidia bitcoin miner bitcoin cryptocurrency news ethereum transactions store bitcoin withdraw bitcoin bitcoin терминалы ethereum fork ropsten ethereum difficulty ethereum bitcoin iphone bitcoin транзакция
bitcoin обозначение bitcoin пицца ethereum zcash reklama bitcoin webmoney bitcoin
rush bitcoin bitcoin кошелька gemini bitcoin genesis bitcoin bitcoin synchronization разработчик bitcoin bitcoin таблица trade cryptocurrency bitcoin создать hyip bitcoin bitcoin мастернода bitcoin hype Protection against physical damageworld bitcoin
The issuance of bitcoins is decentralized. They are issued as a reward for the creation of a new block.This is exactly what the PoW algorithm does: it ensures that a particular blockchain will remain canonical into the future, making it incredibly difficult for an attacker to create new blocks that overwrite a certain part of history (e.g. by erasing transactions or creating fake transactions) or maintain a fork. To have their block validated first, an attacker would need to consistently solve for the nonce faster than anyone else in the network, such that the network believes their chain is the heaviest chain (based on the principles of the GHOST protocol we mentioned earlier). This would be impossible unless the attacker had more than half of the network mining power, a scenario known as the majority 51% attack.биржа ethereum майнинга bitcoin инструкция bitcoin
cudaminer bitcoin
email bitcoin bitcoin теханализ ethereum testnet dorks bitcoin bitcoin qazanmaq bitcoin окупаемость bitcoin icon bitcoin qazanmaq monero хардфорк bitcoin free bitcoin миксеры зарабатывать bitcoin wikileaks bitcoin консультации bitcoin bitcoin 2018 panda bitcoin
bitcoin market bitcoin cc avto bitcoin 999 bitcoin polkadot cadaver автосерфинг bitcoin пузырь bitcoin cryptocurrency bitcoin анализ bitcoin bitcoin world carding bitcoin cryptocurrency bitcoin криптовалюты bitcoin bitcoin c bitcoin skrill bitcoin reward ethereum dag This database is typically shared across a large network containing many computers (known as 'nodes') and it is completely public. I say 'typically' because it can technically be formed by any number of nodes. To get blockchain explained fully, it is important to know that the more nodes there is, the more secure it is — that’s why it’s good to have a large number of nodes running the blockchain!For storage, the easiest first step is to make an account with Bitcoin bankchain bitcoin
bitcoin криптовалюта moneybox bitcoin testnet bitcoin приложения bitcoin ферма bitcoin
bitcoin exe auction bitcoin
торги bitcoin
bitcoin knots блоки bitcoin bitcoin обзор ethereum новости bitcoin payoneer транзакция bitcoin faucets bitcoin monero форум bitcoin комиссия tether coin secp256k1 bitcoin
bitcoin принцип bitcoin рублей bitcoin биткоин q bitcoin описание ethereum bitcoin магазин криптовалют ethereum bitcoin maps bitcoin курс bitcoin hash monero address bitcoin air asics bitcoin golden bitcoin tether coin live bitcoin стоимость ethereum bitcoin бот bitcoin книга blue bitcoin linux bitcoin
Require John to fill out lots of forms.транзакции bitcoin secp256k1 ethereum flash bitcoin скрипты bitcoin bitcoin instagram bitcoin desk
bitcoin рулетка bitcoin like bitcoin бесплатно
new cryptocurrency bitcoin darkcoin
monero wallet bitcoin journal серфинг bitcoin konvert bitcoin tether пополнить msigna bitcoin
ethereum api генераторы bitcoin ethereum платформа
bitcoin основатель bitcoin список sgminer monero ethereum fork ethereum contracts
bitcoin hosting ethereum go bitcoin instagram When a block is discovered, the discoverer may award themselves a certain number of bitcoins, which is agreed-upon by everyone in the network. Currently this bounty is 6.25 bitcoins; this value will halve every 210,000 blocks. See Controlled Currency Supply.bitcoin tm chart bitcoin masternode bitcoin ethereum clix bitcoin мошенники сложность ethereum алгоритм monero bitcoin capitalization bitcoin брокеры ethereum siacoin bitcoin вложить You can purchase it directly from another individual in person or over the web.If you’ve ever wondered how long does it take to mine a Bitcoin, you can see that it depends on your hardware. With this highly advanced bit of kit, it would take just over three and a half years. That’s at the current difficulty rating, too. As more miners work on the network, the difficulty increases, and the number of Bitcoin a miner can expect decreases.Physical wallets can also take the form of metal token coins with a private key accessible under a security hologram in a recess struck on the reverse side.:38 The security hologram self-destructs when removed from the token, showing that the private key has been accessed. Originally, these tokens were struck in brass and other base metals, but later used precious metals as bitcoin grew in value and popularity.:80 Coins with stored face value as high as ₿1000 have been struck in gold.:102–104 The British Museum's coin collection includes four specimens from the earliest series:83 of funded bitcoin tokens; one is currently on display in the museum's money gallery. In 2013, a Utahn manufacturer of these tokens was ordered by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to register as a money services business before producing any more funded bitcoin tokens.:80email bitcoin bitcoin cost 777 bitcoin
покупка ethereum bitcoin trend bitcoin hosting адрес bitcoin ccminer monero icons bitcoin ethereum заработок monero пулы прогнозы ethereum Mining services (Cloud mining)bitcoin робот bitcoin онлайн
программа bitcoin kong bitcoin токен ethereum laundering bitcoin bitcoin удвоитель bitcoin роботы nodes bitcoin эпоха ethereum пул monero ava bitcoin ethereum programming bitcoin telegram bitcoin hype история ethereum ethereum com The BFL Jalapeno hashes at 5.5 Gh/s using 30W. That device consumes about $40 per year in electricity (using U.S. residential average of about $0.15 per kWh.) But the device costs over $300 including shipping. Thus, just about a quarter of all costs over a two-year useful life goes to electricity. This compares to GPUs where more than 90% of costs over a two-year life went to electricity. Even more efficient designs can be expected in the future.bitcoin cranes bitcoin мошенничество polkadot блог bitcoin 99 accept bitcoin faucets bitcoin asics bitcoin bitcoin покупка кран ethereum lealana bitcoin создатель bitcoin ann ethereum шифрование bitcoin The owners of some server nodes charge one-time transaction fees of a few cents every time money is sent across their nodes, and online exchanges similarly charge when bitcoins are cashed in for dollars or euros. Additionally, most mining pools either charge a small 1% support fee or ask for a small donation from the people who join their pools.1 ethereum faucet cryptocurrency short bitcoin ltd bitcoin bitcoin reserve ethereum капитализация кошельки bitcoin использование bitcoin 5 bitcoin продам ethereum 1080 ethereum server bitcoin
bitcoin клиент ethereum продать bitcoin greenaddress генераторы bitcoin bitcoin python bitcoin project новые bitcoin
bitcoin forbes платформ ethereum xbt bitcoin bitcoin fpga sec bitcoin
bitcoin onecoin bitcoin carding бесплатно bitcoin bitcoin фото free bitcoin bitcoin spinner деньги bitcoin sha256 bitcoin Decentralized: Cryptocurrencies don’t have a central computer or server. They are distributed across a network of (typically) thousands of computers. Networks without a central server are called decentralized networks.scrypt bitcoin ethereum crane bitcoin token иконка bitcoin Consider that a crucial question may have been overlooked during our school education: why were seashells, or gold, chosen as money in the first place?bitcoin knots In Paine’s view, independence was not a modern-day IQ test, nor was its relevance confined to the American colonies; instead, it was a common sense test and its interest was universal to 'the cause of all mankind,' as Paine put it. In many ways, the same is true of bitcoin. It is not an IQ test; instead, bitcoin is common sense and its implications are near universal. Few people have ever stopped to question or understand the function of money. It facilitates practically every transaction anyone has ever made, yet no one really knows the why of that equation, nor the properties that allow money to effectively coordinate economic activity. Its function is taken for granted, and as a result, it is a subject not widely taught or explored. Yet despite a limited baseline of knowledge, there is often a visceral reaction to the very idea of bitcoin as money. The default position is predictably no. Bitcoin is an anathema to all notions of existing custom. On the surface, it is entirely inconsistent with what folks know money to be. For most, money is just money because it always has been. In general, for any individual, the construction of money is anchored in time and it is very naturally not questioned. steam bitcoin арбитраж bitcoin проекты bitcoin market bitcoin cudaminer bitcoin best bitcoin
ethereum контракт bitcoin plugin coindesk bitcoin card bitcoin 600 bitcoin bitcoin department bitcoin step txid bitcoin armory bitcoin l bitcoin bitcoin calculator 5 bitcoin kran bitcoin bitcoin tm ethereum twitter new bitcoin ethereum coins bitcoin step ethereum calculator курс bitcoin bitcoin арбитраж bitcoin doubler flappy bitcoin
ethereum faucet bitcoin онлайн капитализация bitcoin вложения bitcoin bitcoin chain
mining bitcoin
автомат bitcoin auto bitcoin bitcoin телефон новости bitcoin lamborghini bitcoin халява bitcoin pay bitcoin bitcoin payoneer monero fork bitcoin проект bitcoin статистика 1070 ethereum create bitcoin bitcoin mail bitcoin elena 'As it was conceived, was supposed to be the 90s equivalent of the Acid Test, and we had thought to involve some of the same personnel. But it immediately acquired a financial, commercial quality, which was initially a little unsettling to an old hippy like me. But as soon as I saw it actually working, I thought: oh well, if you’re going to have an acid test for the nineties, money better be involved.'Security Breaches Cause Volatilityвход bitcoin bitcoin alpari tether usb bitcoin ann bitcoin landing ethereum логотип bitcoin map ethereum продам
blockchain bitcoin bitcoin руб количество bitcoin casper ethereum bitcoin депозит bitcointalk monero rigname ethereum bitcoin 3d metatrader bitcoin ethereum complexity ethereum bitcointalk donate bitcoin rotator bitcoin bitcoin two bitcoin mmgp flex bitcoin фото ethereum bitcoin book
ethereum telegram
ethereum валюта bitcoin litecoin ethereum википедия bitcoin 4000 скачать bitcoin flex bitcoin best bitcoin coinder bitcoin bitcoin софт
отзывы ethereum adc bitcoin bitcoin блокчейн platinum bitcoin bitcoin demo
bitcoin talk ethereum видеокарты отзыв bitcoin пулы bitcoin bitcoin продам ethereum browser cryptocurrency tech byzantium ethereum blue bitcoin pirates bitcoin форк bitcoin monero hardware bitcoin eobot bitcoin darkcoin bitcoin котировки
bitcoin карты
bitcoin казино биржи monero neo cryptocurrency
падение bitcoin разделение ethereum carding bitcoin 6000 bitcoin сбербанк bitcoin bitcoin зарегистрироваться bitcoin redex bitcoin journal bitcoin simple aliexpress bitcoin convert bitcoin пул monero виталик ethereum bitcoin nachrichten теханализ bitcoin
bitcoin обменники ethereum падает bitcoin utopia forum ethereum
simplewallet monero
invest bitcoin криптовалюта monero яндекс bitcoin bitcoin надежность btc ethereum ava bitcoin c bitcoin казино ethereum algorithm ethereum hashrate bitcoin alliance bitcoin bitcoin оборот
cryptocurrency top ethereum хешрейт buy tether check bitcoin обменять ethereum трейдинг bitcoin bitcoin рбк
кран monero bitcoin xl wifi tether кошелька bitcoin claim bitcoin
mt5 bitcoin
ethereum coins bitcoin pools
криптовалюта tether airbit bitcoin bitcoin auto
create bitcoin There are three different types of Litecoin miners to choose from: CPUs, GPUs and ASICs. ASICs are the most efficient miners so we’ll start with one of the most popular Litecoin ASICs of all time: the Antminer L3++.ethereum кошелек darkcoin bitcoin
bitcoin арбитраж ethereum 1070 hacking bitcoin bitcoin coingecko bitcoin ios monero hashrate bitcoin hardware bitcoin wmz ethereum crane лотерея bitcoin
tether приложения jaxx bitcoin weather bitcoin to bitcoin bitcoin пополнение litecoin bitcoin контракты ethereum bitcoin mine Blockchain ExplainedTrust %trump2% Transparencybitcoin conference описание ethereum amd bitcoin cryptocurrency nem ethereum сложность bitcoin hacker local bitcoin сервисы bitcoin sell ethereum
cryptonight monero форекс bitcoin ethereum charts store bitcoin cryptocurrency bitcointalk bitcoin chain bitcoin youtube bitcoin bitcoin security
bitcoin yen hd7850 monero zebra bitcoin халява bitcoin hash bitcoin
python bitcoin bitcoin windows pump bitcoin bitcoin прогноз system bitcoin
ethereum pool bitcoin make крах bitcoin bitcoin зебра alpari bitcoin куплю ethereum
bitcoin banking masternode bitcoin goldmine bitcoin options bitcoin 999 bitcoin 99 bitcoin bitcoin bitrix bitcoin cudaminer продам ethereum your bitcoin blogspot bitcoin ethereum кошельки
alien bitcoin bitcoin кости
bitcoin kz bitcoin weekend blockchain bitcoin
сбор bitcoin tether пополнение bitcoin mail
bitcoin cloud tether верификация transactions, as shown below.bitcoin fpga bitcoin avto
курс ethereum ethereum info
ютуб bitcoin
bitcoin forum bitcoin настройка japan bitcoin ethereum api blogspot bitcoin падение ethereum keyhunter bitcoin etf bitcoin
bitcoin лопнет rise cryptocurrency