Money News: Price of One Bitcoin Started Year at $1,000. It Just Passed $11,000
The price of bitcoin, the most widely used virtual currency, rose above $11,000 on Wednesday for the first time, breaking a symbolic threshold in what has been a vertiginous ascent this year.
The cost of buying one bitcoin as measured by the website coindesk.com was at $10,673 by morning trading in Europe — up from about $1,000 at the start of the year.
Virtual currencies have been the subject of much debate this year, with the CEO of JPMorgan Chase calling bitcoin a “fraud” but other executives saying it should not be dismissed.
Bitcoin was created about a decade ago as an alternative to government-issued currencies. It and other virtual currencies were initially used primarily as a method of payment, particularly to buy illegal goods and services online. In recent months, they have become a hot investment among speculators.
In a move that gave further credibility to bitcoin, the U.S. exchange operator CME Group said in October that it plans to open a futures market for the currency before the end of the year, if it can get approval from regulators.
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