Cracking the Bitcoin: Digging Into a $131M USD Virtual Currency

Bitcoin slump shows signs of slowing; misinformation remains widespread

Our piece on the Bitcoin market’s “Black Friday” saw tremendous pickup, being carried or quoted by Business Insider, Spiegel (Germany’s equivalent of The Wall Street Journal), and Slashdot (whose submitter did an admirable job explaining the piece), among others.

Over the weekend there was more movement in the Bitcoin market, and much confusion about the peer-to-peer currency remains. In this follow up we’ll take an objective look at what we feel the true story of Bitcoin is.

I. Is the Bitcoin “Recession”/”Depression” Over?

The market on Sunday showed signs of recovery. With the world’s largest exchange, Mt. Gox opening at $14.75 USD/Bitcoin, the price has floated up to $20.14 USD/Bitcoin [source]. That’s a massive 36.5 percent upward shift (in a deflationary direction). (The market has since receded slightly to $19 USD/Bitcoin.)

On the other hand, after the Bitcoin “Black Friday” the market is now down 30.3 percent thanks to another major dip on Saturday (this shift is in the inflationary direction).

Last, but not least, if you look at Bitcoin trading over the last month it’s seen rampant deflation, with prices soaring from around a dollar in mid-May to current levels — nearly 20 fold deflation.

So what does all this mean? In short, it indicates that there is a great deal of volatility in the Bitcoin market. Part of this arises out of media coverage of the crypto-currency. Part of it is based on the growing pains of an experimental currency that’s still in the proving stages.

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