Bitcoin price LIVE news: Latest tracker as bitcoin soars to new high – but what now?
BITCOIN is continuing to perform strongly after soaring to a new record high above $3,500 yesterday. Here is the latest bitcoin price and live updates.
Bitcoin broke the $3,500 barrier yesterday
Bitcoin peaked at an incredible $3,538 yesterday after bouncing back from uncertainty over a splinter group of miners forking off to create Bitcoin Cash on August 1.
The market cap of bitcoin has now soared to more than $56billion, according to CoinMarketCap. Here is the latest bitcoin price, live updates and breaking news. (All times BST)
7.50pm: Bitcoin remains steady after initial dip
Bitcoin’s prince has evened out after it hit its record high price yesterday.
The token is currently trading at $3357.33 as of 7.50pm.
Today’s high peaked at $3,460.54 so far, and the currency hit a low of $3,280.33.
2.00pm: Bitcoin dips after hitting new record highs
Bitcoin has dipped slightly, falling by 3.12 per cent overall so far today. Today's record high is $3,460.54 and today's low is $3,283.93.
Bitcoin opened at $3,431.76. Bitcoin closed at $3,453.16 on Tuesday after having reached a record high of $3,538.04 yesterday.
1.55pmpm: BTC-e to return under new name
Bitcoin exchange (BTC-e) is set to return under a new identity, according to a forum account linked to the platform.
BTC-e was shut down by US officials last month and handed more than $100million in fines.
But BTC-e claims to have “managed to gain control of 55 per cent of its funds” and now intends to return as ‘BTE’ to pay back its users.
Bitcoin's value has skyrocketed over the past month
11.30am: ‘Bitcoin will reach $5,000’, expert predicts
Ronnie Moas of Standpoint Research predicts bitcoins could be worth $5,000 by the end of the year.
He believes that cryptocurrencies will be popular in emerging economies and that bitcoin is only going to get bigger.
“It would not shock me to see cryptocurrencies go to 4% of global investment assets", Moas told Quartz.
“Before anyone laughs at me for suggesting that something like that could happen—just look at what happened in the last five years.
“People who put in $10,000 made $1 million already. It happened already and I think it will happen one more time.”
Bitcoin has dipped slightly since reaching record-levels yesterday
10.50am: SegWit is activated
The Segregation Witness (SegWit) process has finally been activated.
The contentious scaling upgrade has revived support from 100 per cent of bitcoin mining pools and reached the ‘lock-in’ threshold last night, after passing the 1,916-block threshold needed to start the process.
There will now be a two-week “grace period” to give miners and users a window to upgrade their software, before launching on August 21.
SegWit was first proposed by Pieter Wuille in December 2015 and aims to open up the “open up several ways to scale bitcoin to support more users”, according to Coindesk.
SegWit has been activated by Bitcoin miners
10.15am: Fidelity Investment user get Bitcoin green light
Fidelity Investment users can now track bitcoin and cryptocurrency investments alongside traditional assets.
Clients of Fidelity Investments Inc can use its website to view their holdings of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies held through digital wallet provider Coinbase.
Coinbase enables users to buy and trade bitcoin as well as competitors Ethereum and Litecoin.
Fidelity Investments Inc said it aims to learn more about digital currencies, which have been rocketing in value since the creation of bitcoin.